Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted and I welcome him to the Seanad Technical Group. I also welcome the Supreme Court decision announced today reversing the decision of Mr. Justice Humphreys in the High Court in so far as he ruled on the rights of the unborn extending beyond Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution. I listened with great interest to the Chief Justice, Mr. Frank Clarke's summary of the judgment and I look forward to reading the lengthy judgment in more detail, but it is clear from the summary that the judgment does provide the necessary legal clarity to enable us to move forward swiftly to bring in the legislation necessary to hold the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. I look forward to the referendum legislation being before us in this House in early course. If he can, I ask the Leader to provide a suggested timeframe. I accept it is early days yet as the judgment has only just been delivered but it does provide the necessary legal clarity and I welcome the ratio, the key aspect of the judgment.

I also welcome the Leader's scheduling today of a series of statements on women's suffrage to mark the centenary of women's suffrage. The statements will commence at 2.30 p.m. today and I look forward to taking part in the debate. It will give us all an opportunity to reflect on the series of events being run in the Oireachtas to mark what we are calling Vótáil 100, the 100th anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote. It is a very significant year and clearly a very significant centenary and we have a number of very important events of which colleagues will already be aware and will support throughout the year. I welcome the opportunity to have that debate. I think we should also use it to mark the necessity of ensuring that we have increased numbers of women representatives in the Oireachtas in future years and to look at ways in which we can increase women's representation in politics. That is very important.

I have emailed leaders of other groups the draft text of a cross-party motion on Syria. I spoke about this in the House yesterday. The intention is to note the appalling, barbaric bombardment of civilians in east Ghouta at present.