Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are only two days from the children's rights referendum and I reiterate how important it is to see a high turnout on Saturday and strong support for the "Yes" side. Many of us have spent a lot of time canvassing. I was canvassing outside schools only this morning. There is strong support for the "Yes" side, recognition that the referendum wording is carefully balanced and that it is very important to place protection of children's rights into the Constitution. However, given how much support there is, it is important not to descend into complacency and that we continue to urge people to come out and vote. It is also important to have a high turnout because this is the first time a Saturday vote has been tried for a very long time. This is something we have been seeking for many years in order to enable more people to vote, allowing students in particular and others living away from home to return and vote where they are registered. It is really important to have that high turnout and I welcome the high levels of canvassing for a "Yes" vote by colleagues from all parties.

I, too, would like a debate on education issues. The Minister for Education and Skills was very clear on radio that the streamlining of student grant application process through SUSI should lead to great improvements in the system. There used to be enormous delays in the old system run by the councils. The Minister pointed out that although it is regrettable that many people are still waiting for their applications to be processed nonetheless there is an improvement on the old system where considerable delays were built in.

There was encouraging news this morning that all colleagues should welcome, indicating that increasing numbers of young people are staying on in secondary schools to leaving certificate level. The increase is important and very significant. The number of students staying in school to complete second level is at the highest ever rate, at more than 90%. The percentage of those who sit the leaving certificate is at 90.2%, and in DEIS schools there has been a greatly increased retention rate, from 68% in 2001 to more than 80% in 2006. It is very welcome news and we should be cognisant of that when we have a debate on education.

Many colleagues in the House spoke yesterday on the topic of family planning clinics, with some looking for an inquiry. Allegations concerning certain family planning clinics were published in one newspaper and there is an ongoing investigation into those. Clearly, if any practice was engaged in that was against the law or damaging to women's health, that is a very serious matter. However, there is a broader context. Clinics operating entirely outside the law, meaning those that do not offer non-directive counselling and are therefore not regulated under the Regulation of Information Act, have in the past been the subject of both allegations in newspapers and of High Court proceedings. These last concerned practices that sought to use very forceful tactics to bully women into taking certain courses of action, in one case to enter into an illegal adoption. In this country we have had a history of failing to recognise our responsibility, as legislators, to women in crisis pregnancy. I am very hopeful that when the ABC group reports we will finally face up to our responsibilities, at very least to those women who face a life-threatening condition as a result of their pregnancy, and to women whose pregnancies show fatal foetal abnormalities. Currently these women are not treated with any compassion.