Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the points raised by Senator Seery Kearney, who is a great advocate for families going through surrogacy. It is important that the Minister listens to her point that there must be a pathway found between his Department and the Department of Justice in regard to international surrogacy. I have heard anecdotally that there is an impasse on the issue. The Minister needs to find the political will to address it.

We are here to discuss the cervical screening programme and, as I speak, there are only women in the Chamber discussing it. Ultimately, we have a role to ensure that trust is put back into the programme. Extending the date by which people can submit claims goes some way to instilling trust in the CervicalCheck tribunal. However, there is clearly still something wrong. It is very easy to blame the lawyers for being greedy in wanting to go to the courts because they will not get huge fees if they go to the tribunal, but that is unfair. No solicitor could advise his or her client to go to the tribunal when there are clear or perceived limitations to that forum. We need to find a political way, as other speakers have said, to address the issues of recurrence and the statute. If the hepatitis C tribunal was able to address the issue of recurrence, why can the CervicalCheck tribunal not do the same? The changes set out in this Bill go some way to encouraging people to avail of the tribunal but the reality is that the system is not perfect. Legal advisers are not going to advise their clients to go the tribunal route when they perceive limitations and consider it to be wrong to do so. That needs to be addressed.

We are here today because of the work of the many advocates involved in the 221+ group. I do not like listing names because there are so many brave women, but I will mention Vicky Phelan, Emma Mhic Mhathúna, Irene Teap, Ruth Morrissey and Lorraine Walsh, all of whom have been in the public eye. All the members of the 221+ group have kept this issue alive, as my colleague said, through huge adversity and pain for their families. My father had cancer for a long time before he passed away. I do not know how these women had the energy, going through this, to keep their fight alive. It is commendable. People are watching Vicky Phelan's journey as she goes to the United States, gets an apartment and goes through therapy. Her experience gives hope not only to cervical cancer patients but also to many patients across the board. It gives them courage to face their treatment and keep going. Ms Phelan has been very generous in sharing the detail of her treatment and life.

As other speakers noted, we have moved to the HPV first screening method for cervical cancer. Screening has its limits and is not perfect. As Senator Chambers said, the HPV procedure has a success rate of nine out of ten, but there are still 10% of samples that will get through the hoop. We need to make people aware of the symptoms of cervical cancer, which include bleeding between periods and perhaps after intercourse. Some women do not know about that and the message must be put out there. As public representatives, we must use our platform to let women know what the symptoms are and that while screening is not perfect, it is vital that they attend their appointment because it may catch early abnormal cervical cells. They also need to be alert to other symptoms that may present.

This Bill is a first step towards improving the CervicalCheck tribunal but, as other speakers said, much more needs to be done. The figures alone speak volumes and what they indicate cannot be denied. The fact there have been only seven applicants makes clear that the system is not working and more must be done to improve the legislation. We would all be delighted to come back to the House to see improvements in it. Through the Leader's office and with the assistance of the Fianna Fáil leader in the House, we would be very happy to schedule time to consider improvements to the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act.