Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Deputy Kelly on the role has played in recent years as leader of the Labour Party and as a Minister in a previous Government. Some people will say that the Labour Party has struggled to overcome its period in government. Quite frankly, however, it has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the period it spent in government between 2011 to 2016, which was a very difficult time. In the early part of that Government's term, as the Deputy will recall, I was the senior Minister in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and he was Minister of State. While we did not always agree, we did get on and we managed to get a lot of things done. I particularly remember integrated ticketing, as we called it at the time but which we now call the Leap card. It had gone on for years and years. It was one of the projects the Deputy was given responsibility for. He really banged heads together. Sometimes being a bit brash is not necessarily a bad thing in politics. It required weekly meetings and it got done within months. Another area for which the Deputy had responsibility was taxis. It was very difficult and an area that people ran away from. He managed to make some very important reforms that were good for passengers and consumers and for people who drive taxis. I want to recognise all of that on this occasion. They may seem like small things but they had not been fixed for a very long time. They were finally fixed because, by and large, Deputy Kelly is the kind of politician who gets things done.

In recent years, Deputy Kelly has taken a particular interest in issues regarding women's health, whether the eight amendment or CervicalCheck. He has been a very strong advocate for Vicky Phelan and a number of women who were affected by that debacle. I have seen their social media messages today, and they are very complimentary of the Deputy.

With regard to the Scally report, significant progress has been made in implementing its recommendations. The most recent progress report was published by the Department of Health just yesterday. It shows that as of the end of 2021 four out of the 170 actions remain to be completed. The Minister for Health has asked Dr. Scally to conduct a final progress review of the implementation plan. That is now under way.

Something that is of real importance, and the Deputy mentioned it, is the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019. The latter includes a mandatory requirement for open disclosure where a serious incident occurs. The Bill will also bring private hospitals within the remit of the Health Act. It also contains provisions to protect clinical audit. It was introduced in Dáil Éireann on 12 December 2019. It has passed Second Stage and needs to move to Committee Stage. I am informed it could go to Committee Stage as early as next week, but it will certainly do so in the coming weeks.

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