Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator Frances Black on the passage last night of Committee Stage of the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018, which the Labour Party was proud to support. I commend her on obtaining cross-party support for it. I hope the Government will see fit not to oppose the legislation on a further Stage. I have been actively vocal on the issue of rights for Palestinian people at the foreign affairs committee, as have my Labour Party colleagues elsewhere, including former Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore. Ireland has a good track record on rights for Palestinians. I consider the Bill to be in that spirit and in keeping with the move to recognise international law and breaches of international law in terms of the settlements.

I thank Deputy Michael Harty for organising a briefing this morning on cervical cancer with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. We have had a debate on the CervicalCheck controversy but the briefing this morning indicates the need for a more broad debate on the benefits of vaccination programmes and public health programmes more generally.The message from the Royal College of Physicians was important, namely, that it is possible to eradicate diseases such as cervical cancer through progressive public health policies such as the HPV vaccination programme and screening programmes such as CervicalCheck, which of course is not diagnostic but rather is screening. There was very positive news from this morning's briefing that take-up of the HPV vaccine across Irish schools has risen to 65% this September, a 15% increase on previous years. We also heard from the Australian expert, Professor Marion Saville, about the likely elimination of cervical cancer in Australia as a result of a successful vaccination and screening programme.

I commend those involved in organising the briefing. It was a positive story to emerge out of what has been a very depressing, negative and distressing series of stories about CervicalCheck, and it reminds us of the vital importance that screening and vaccination programmes play in promoting public health and, ultimately, leading to the elimination of disease.