Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. It was not my intention to be the last person to speak. It certainly should not be a man who concludes the debate on this topic. I know the Minister of State will also comment.

While I agree with the motion and the legislation, as Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has highlighted, this is an opportunity for us to set a standard not just here but internationally, as we have done so many times in the past. We can use Irish Aid to bring forward legislation in countries we support, particularly in Africa, to provide sanitary facilities for women.

This debate is part of a conversation we should be having with regard to free contraceptive care. It is all part and parcel of what we need to discuss and bring forward. I have brought ideas for integrated primary care contraceptive schemes before the Minister of State too many times. So far, nothing has been done about it. It has been almost three months since the legislation on abortion was passed and we still have not moved on it. I would like to see some movement on that and on sanitary products. We should be a leader on this for the rest of the world, using our influence and our Irish Aid money to assist other countries in bringing this reform forward.

In the 1980s, I worked for several years in a mixed boarding school in the south Pacific. As teachers, we provided free sanitary products because many of the pupils came from outlying islands and did not have the necessary facilities. We paid for the sanitary products used by the women there. Out in the villages the situation was totally different. Products were not even used - women just went away for a couple of days. I felt at the time that we should use our influence. If there is a positive outcome here, we should use that positivity elsewhere in the world. Irish Aid money should be used to assist in that.