Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like many, I watched the gathering last night in County Kerry of those who support women like Emma Mhic Mhathúna and Vicky Phelan, who are enduring such difficult times. I presume everyone watched it. It was heartbreaking. I saw their anger and the continued lack of accountability. More marches in solidarity are planned for this week. We must all support these women and get to the bottom of this and heads must roll in this regard.

The Government seems still to be playing catch-up on this scandal and was, most worryingly, kept in the dark about a strategy that was dangerous and sinister in the extreme. It worries me that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health were kept out of the conversation and shielded from documents which resulted in harm to women. We are here to make good rules to protect our society and if we are not given all of the information, we must ask why. I echo calls made in the Dáil by my colleague, Deputy Marc MacSharry, for clarification on outsourcing of smears to UK laboratories at busy times from CervicalCheck. Women need certainty that smears are being read carefully and that they can trust, once again, a vital screening service.

Over the past few days, I was heartened to hear that measures had been taken to help women. However, it is still the case that not enough is being done. We have all heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. I call on the Minister to consider that and to ensure that not only are expenses covered but that real, tangible supports are put in place for these women and their families. A discretionary medical card should be provided to anyone with a terminal or chronic illness. I have brought this up several times before. It should be a straightforward matter to claim expenses which should be reimbursed without quibble. Counsellors, childcare services and transportation should be made available to these families without obstacle. A simple request for services should be made and granted in the same conversation. I do not want to read that months down the line, families are still waiting for receipts to be cleared. I suggest these families' names be put on a VIP list circulated to all services. If they make a call for a taxi at night or for a nurse, a service should be provided straight away. The last thing anyone with a terminal illness needs to be doing is checking receipts and collecting dates and times. I encourage a debate on the introduction of care teams for all families suffering at this time. We should have a system whereby the essential village is brought in to support these families, including someone to cook for them, someone to look after their children and someone to look after the women and administer their medications. This should never have happened. We need to ensure it never happens again.