Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the motion and commend my colleagues in the Green Party on tabling it. I entirely echo the sentiments expressed by Senators Pauline O'Reilly and Garvey. They hit the nail on the head in their contributions. As Senator O'Reilly outlined, I raised a Commencement matter issue on this topic on 25 September. I hope the Minister of State will not mind me saying that I was less than satisfied with his answer on the day. I hope the position has moved on since 25 September.

Senator Garvey referenced the patriarchal society that we are living in. The response of the Minister of State on the day echoed that patriarchal society because he referenced the condom distribution scheme currently in place. While it is welcome, it is a male-based method of contraception and the control lies with the man, which is completely unsatisfactory. Condoms do not suit everyone and do not have a 100%, or even a very high, success rate. Therefore, it is completely unsatisfactory that we are saying this is what is available to the women of Ireland, who make up 51% of the population, as my colleagues have outlined.

The working group on access to contraception was established in April 2019 by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to examine the policy, regulatory and legislative issues around the rolling out of a universal access to contraception scheme in Ireland following the recommendations of the committee on the eighth amendment. The working group produced a report more than 12 months ago which identified the various barriers facing women when accessing contraception. It stated that the choice of contraception, in particular, was an issue. The main barriers that exist involve the choice of contraception. As my colleagues have outlined, that is the key issue.

It is not good enough to say there is one method of contraception available which can do girls, and they should go off and make the best of it. That is not acceptable, and I do not think anybody sitting in the Chamber today thinks it is acceptable. We will not accept it in the future. This is an issue that has been a long while coming. We repealed the eighth amendment but we have not gone away and are not satisfied with the lack of progress on this. I will continue to raise this issue, and I know my colleagues here will do the same, if we do not see some real action.

The most effective forms of contraception, that is, those which are long-lasting, are not available unless one has a lot of money. As my colleagues pointed out, women, no matter what socioeconomic group they come from, will always prioritise their family whether that is paying for education, extracurricular activities, putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. That has always been the case. Women, traditionally, have not been able to access politics because they prioritise their families. Contraception is another area in which they prioritise their families.

The cost of delivery of free universal access to contraception for everyone is €80 million to €100 million per year. The working group emphasised that the considerations that the Department needed to take into account when assessing the merits of the universal scheme go far beyond the financial aspects. They includes the health and well-being of the female population of Ireland. In particular, a universal scheme would negate the negative effects of unplanned pregnancies in Ireland. I note that 69% of women who travelled to England and Wales in 2018 to access abortion care were over 25 years of age. The motion specifically references the cohort aged between 17 and 25 years which, I am delighted to say, was included in the programme for Government. That is just the first step on the road, however.

We need to make sure that women over the age of 25 can access contraception. In fact, we need to make sure that women who are suffering from medical conditions such as endometriosis – we know thousands of women are suffering in silence in this country and have to access contraception to deal with this medical issue – are included as a priority in the scheme because to do otherwise would be completely unacceptable. I for one will not stop until this is delivered.

The phased approach being suggested, which is also in the programme for Government, will cost between €18 and €22 million per year, which is very small money when one considers the societal benefits it will deliver for us. I hope the Minister of State will be able to give us a clear outline on the roadmap to delivering this. The then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, promised the Dáil that the scheme would be available at the start of 2021. While I acknowledge we have had an election and a pandemic in the meantime, the pandemic has accelerated the need for this scheme because women have been suffering during the pandemic.

Women's ability to access contraception is brought into sharp focus when one thinks about women who are living in economically deprived situations, abusive homes or who may have to travel far beyond their community but who are now limited because of a lack of public transport options in urban or rural Ireland. We need to deliver this. It is not good enough that this is not available. We need some commitments from the Minister of State on the legislation that will be needed to introduce this scheme.

Can we have a clear timeline in order that we can hold the Minister of State and his colleagues to account on this? This is just the first piece of the jigsaw.When will it be rolled out to everybody else? Has the Department costed this and projected it? It is part of the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.

Long-acting contraceptive methods are the best and many women cannot access them. As my colleagues in the Green Party have pointed out, not every contraceptive method suits every women and women's needs change as their lives move on. This really needs to be taken into account.

I want to refer to the education mentioned by my colleagues. The lack of knowledge about people's reproductive systems and their contraceptive needs extends to the issue of period poverty, which is an issue I have been campaigning on for a long number of years. It is amazing the number of women who do not understand their own cycles and cannot then decide and make the best choices for themselves based on this.

We do not have a proper sex education system in our schools. We have been failing our young people in this regard. We are all products of this dysfunctional sex education system. We need to start educating parents. Even with the best will in the world, because they have gone through this dysfunctional education system with a complete lack of sex education, they are not able to educate their children. They do not have the tools to deliver this education, even with the best will in the world, in their own homes. This really needs to be looked at.

We will not sit idly by and let this issue slip down the priority scale. It is a major health issue in this country. I know we are in the middle of a pandemic but women need to be prioritised.