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

Regarding the all-island women's forum report, the forum has received funding for a second year of work through the reconciliation fund of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is welcome. The Government looks forward to continuing to interact with the forum as the latter continues its deliberations. Government Departments are considering the recommendations made by the forum in its first report, including on all-island approaches to gender-based violence, deepening of North-South education links and amplifying women's voices in the media, North and South. The shared island unit also met the National Women's Council in October to discuss the second year of work of the forum.

I want to be associated with Deputies' remarks on the family-friendly and inclusive Parliament proposals for here.

I met the Ceann Comhairle about it. I want to put on record my support for the idea of a second working Chamber and that I am absolutely willing to attend and participate in that as Taoiseach and as a Deputy.

On the issue of all-island cancer research and the AICRI, I agree with the remarks of Deputy Brendan Smith and others that health has been one of the areas in which we have seen considerable progress. It has been done in a low-key, effective way whether it is cardiac services in Altnagelvin, cancer, paediatric services, or cardiothoracic surgery in Crumlin hospital. It is a really good example of co-operation. We are a very small island and we can treat conditions as an island of 7 million people in a way we could not as jurisdictions of 5 million and 2 million people. I would love to see more co-operation in that regard. I agree with Deputy Brendan Smith's comments on higher education, particularly with regard to co-operation in the north west.

I will not comment on strikes in Northern Ireland. They are industrial disputes. It is not my role to comment on them but I hope they can be resolved. They could be better resolved if the Executive was up and running. I hope that will become possible in the next few weeks or months.

I will follow up on the issue of retail gas prices raised by Deputy Boyd-Barrett. If the company has cut its retail prices in the North, it should cut them here too. Perhaps it is not as straightforward as that but I am aware of the reduction the company has announced and I hope it presages a positive announcement here.

On the UK legacy Bill the Government continues to express its deep concerns as well as the unilateral approach of the UK Government. I raised this directly with Prime Minister Sunak during our call in January and at my meetings with party leaders in Belfast. The Tánaiste also raised it at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. The UK Government has now published amendments to the Bill. However, we do not believe these alter the substance of the proposed approach and they fail to meet our concerns around immunity, compliance with human rights obligations and victims' participation. We have been consistent in our opposition to the Bill across the board and remain engaged with the UK Government on it, strongly urging it to pause its current legislative route and to return to a partnership approach that is victim-centred. I concur with Deputy Gannon's comments. We often talk about the legacy Bill in respect of murders and assaults in a conflict context. If it would give people immunity around sexual assaults as well, that would be really appalling. We know the stories of IRA people and maybe others who were involved in sexual assaults and the idea that they would somehow get immunity would be hard to stomach, if that is part of the proposal.

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