Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend all those involved in the wonderful ceremony last week, Dublin Honours Magdalenes. It was uplifting to see it after such shabby treatment of so many women for so long by the State, other institutions and, in many cases, by individual families. It was good and positive to see such a great welcome for the Magdalenes by Dublin's Lord Mayor, as well as other aspects of civic and official society. I also commend the President, Michael D. Higgins, for hosting a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin. I join Senator Ardagh in expressing concern about the delay in the report of the scoping inquiry into CervicalCheck. The report today appears to address only one point in the terms of reference. A full report is now not likely until the autumn, and certainly not by the end of June as it was supposed to be. My colleague, Deputy Kelly, has raised in the Dáil the issue of the continued lack of information being provided to many of the women affected who have still not received their personal medical records. Clearly, greater urgency needs to be given to this matter and I hope we can see that. I ask the Leader to pass that on to the Minister for Health.

In respect of another aspect of women's health, however, I commend the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach on moving swiftly to address issues that have arisen over the weekend regarding the legislation to give effect to the wishes of the people who voted in the referendum 66% in favour of repealing the eighth amendment. The Minister and the Taoiseach are quite right to point out that while there will be a conscientious objection clause in the legislation - that was in the heads of Bill published in March - clearly there will still be a duty to refer onwards and doctors cannot deny women access to medical care that they so clearly require.

We should also be looking for the Joint Committee on Health to conduct hearings, as I think it will, on how we can adopt a best practice model of health service provision in this area. Now we have an opportunity to get our legislation right. The heads of the Bill are strong and positive, and people were aware of those when they voted "Yes" on 25 May. It would be useful for the committee to hold hearings with, for example, experts from the World Health Organization, WHO, as well as with Irish GPs and members of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I have written to the Minister on behalf of Women's Health in Ireland, a cross-party, cross-political and cross-professional grouping, to ask that the Chair of the Joint Committee on Health, Deputy Harty, would conduct such hearings, and I hope we will do that.

This week is national bike week, and I wish all colleagues a happy national bike week. I very much hope we will see in Leinster House greater provision for cyclists. There has been a somewhat grudging provision of facilities for cyclists in these Houses and it is something I, as a daily all-weather cyclist, have been meaning to raise more often. I am delighted to be meeting the Superintendent of the Houses and others tomorrow to look at how we can improve provision of, in particular, parking facilities for bikes. We need Leinster House to lead the way in encouraging people to cycle to work. In Dublin, there are low numbers of people cycling and a terrible provision of cycle paths and cycling infrastructure. There is much in literature now about building velotopia - a utopia for bikes - or cities in which cycling is given priority and in which citizens are encouraged to cycle. We could lead on that in Leinster House.