Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion.

I welcome the Minister of State. I am delighted that we are having this debate. It follows on from the debate in Dáil Éireann, which was very well received both here and by the general public. I, too, commend the Women's Caucus for formulating this motion and putting it forward. I am delighted that we have cross-party support across both Houses. The motion relates to starting the debate and then continuing on with it. The debate on period poverty has inspired many young people right and has started them down the road of political activism, which is to be encouraged. It is part of the overall debate on reproduction that we are having but we still have a long way to go.

I also welcome the students in the Gallery. I commend them on the work they have done. I particularly commend Mr. Senan O'Reardon and Ms Fathia Rasheed from Donabate community college, which is located near where I live. Their school was one of the finalists. Those in the Gallery are doing a great job to promote female participation. I am glad that they are here for this very important debate, a debate we are having because we have record numbers of women in both Houses of the Oireachtas, even though the numbers are quite low. Let us hope it will inspire plenty more people to put themselves forward for election.

As already stated, a generation of young women, and men, have been inspired by the period poverty debate. In particular, I commend Eureka Secondary School in Kells. I visited the school and pupils from there visited Leinster House in return. They have started a project called "Our Conversation about Menstruation", which can be found online. They do a great job at having this discussion and advertising the issue of period poverty.

This is a real issue. When I started talking about this over 12 months ago, people were somewhat confused. They did not realise that it was an issue until the debate started. I suppose women were aware of it but they never spoke about it out of shame and the stigma regarding periods. The inability to provide for one's own basic hygiene is a cause of shame but that should not be the case. It is a failure of society that 50% of Irish girls state that they have missed out on their education because of lack of access to hygiene products.Two thirds of Irish women have used makeshift protection for periods, which is a high number. The various other items that they have used can lead to serious health implications and infections down the line. That is shameful and should not be happening in Ireland today though, unfortunately, it is.

Homeless women and women living in direct provision are particularly vulnerable and that is added to all the other issues they are facing because of their living situations. This issue is, obviously, particular to women. It should not be there. It will have a devastating impact on those women and it is something we, as a society, need to tackle. I commend Homeless Period Ireland on the fantastic work they are doing but it should not be up to people to volunteer and provide sanitary products that should be provided by the Government.

I hope this conversation will result in real action taking place. Our near neighbours in Scotland rolled out a scheme last September, which cost £5 million. Scotland has a similar population to us and those products are now available in public buildings. The women of Ireland deserve this investment. I hope the Minister of State will promise that it will be delivered in Ireland in the very near future.