Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have not had the opportunity to congratulate and welcome our two new Senators. Senator Lawlor is not here at the moment. I hope both of them will have a very productive, happy and collegial time here in the Seanad and that they get to work on a lot of the issues. I was very impressed with Senator Marshall's contribution this morning. It is great to have them here.

Senator Mark Daly spoke about the Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill 2016. I hear what he is saying. The cervical cancer screening issue that is unfolding literally by the hour is disgraceful. I am astonished that we have to talk about this in the Parliament. In respect of not just negligence but the willful withholding of information, it is one thing to make a bad decision but to willfully withhold information from women is deplorable. There are no words. My heart goes out to the women who have been affected by this and who do not know at this point whether they have been affected. Every woman in Ireland deals with this issue every so often. We must have faith in the service. A really important point needs to be emphasised over and over again. We need women to continue to have these tests. We need to restore confidence in the system. For the most part, it has worked very effectively. It has been very positive and thorough for any woman I know who has had treatment, such as through a regular smear test and ending up in the colposcopy department. First and foremost, we need to restore that.

On the Senator's amendment to the Order of Business and his request for the Minister for Justice and Equality to come before the House, the Minister is due to go before the Select Committee on Justice and Equality with the Data Protection Bill today. The select committee's meeting is due to last until midnight. The Minister has offered to come before the House on Tuesday evening to deal with the issue if that is to the Senator's satisfaction. That is the earliest point at which the Minister can be here. There is a wider issue when it comes to political accountability. The fact that Ministers and Deputies are elected by the people makes them accountable to the people. By all means, politicians need to be fully accountable but I do not see why the permanent government should not be accountable. I feel really strongly about that. Naturally, I would defend the Minister for Health but I thought it was really difficult for him, on a human level, to go into the Dáil with information he was given at very short notice. How can he have full confidence in the information he has been given when it changes by the hour? I really think there needs to be accountability in the permanent government.