Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will bring everything the Senators have said back to the Minister. The women's task force is meeting later on this week and I will be 100% supportive of it. For far too long, young ladies did not really know what they were presenting with. They all thought this was normal but it is far from normal. No man in the country would accept this. It is mainly ladies who are present in the Chamber for this conversation on International Women's Day and there is no way a man would put up with what the Senators have described this morning. We all know what bad period pain is like and one would hope it would go away with two Panadols but it should not continue without a diagnosis being sought and it should not reoccur every month along with other pains. This pain is debilitating and we have to stop that happening.

We have to give women back their lives, and the only way we can do so is by having a proper ambulatory service throughout the country. It should not just be available in four hospitals or in certain geographic areas. We have to look at everybody. We must also provide education for our GPs so that when these young people go back and talk to their mams, there will no longer be any talk from GPs about this all being in their heads. We need to stop that approach.