David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I, too, remember Vicky Phelan and all the other women who, unfortunately, are not with us today and their families. The 221+ group has done a phenomenal piece of work over recent years in campaigning on a range of issues, and this is one of those core issues for the group. I commend each and every one of them and all those with whom I have engaged on their courage and the respect and strength they have shown in making sure we get this right. It was an inspiration to all of us. Again, I thank the Minister for his co-operation, all the staff in the Department and the HSE and all those who were involved in drafting what was in the end very complex legislation. It was quite difficult towards the end to follow all the amendments to amendments we had to go through, but the fact that we were able to admit that we had not gone far enough and then keep going until we got it right is a victory for all of us and certainly a victory for the 221+ group.

Mandatory open disclosure is really important. We talked about this for a long time. It is great that we now have a Bill that we in this House can now pass which passes the Vicky test, which was always the key issue for those of us in opposition and, I would argue, for the Minister.

I also welcome the fact that we are seeing a greater use of the lab in the Coombe. I want to see more progress in that area. That is again something Vicky had campaigned for. I am conscious that there was a lot of hurt and a lot of pain that many families, two in particular, had to go through because of the CervicalCheck scandal.

We should also pay tribute to Gabriel Scally for the work he has done because his report and the recommendations he made are in part a reason we are here today as well. While we are paying tribute to people, we also have to accept that we still have a long way to go in terms of many of the issues Dr. Scally recommended. We had some discussion on them earlier, so they cannot be long-fingered. The issue of being able to make a complaint on an issue of clinical judgment is not one that we can now just forget about and put on the long finger as many other issues will of course overtake what happened here in terms of this Bill.

I commend everybody involved. My thoughts and solidarity are with the 221+ group tonight. All of these Bills are, in and of themselves, imperfect and issues may arise from time to time but the commitments given to engage with the 221+ group on the processes and procedures which will have to follow the passing of this Bill in the Dáil constitute a big step forward.

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