Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Leader will be aware, as will other Members, that recently the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, announced that there would be a new scheme in place for childcare in this country and the Government has announced core funding for the childcare sector. The Minister is due to publish specific guidelines for the sector that private and public providers will be required to engage with in order to receive this core funding. I understand the Minister is working on this. I respectfully ask that at the earliest opportunity, when he is in a position to update the House, we request a date for a discussion with him on this core funding and the provision of childcare.

The second issue I wish to raise is endometriosis and the ongoing difficulties many thousands of women in this country face. Members may have heard the ongoing discussion on Newstalk that began last week with my sister, Ciara, and went on for almost seven days with women ringing in. It started a national conversation on this horrific condition that is not curable but is manageable if there is early intervention. Last year we had the announcement of the first specialist clinic in Tallaght, which was welcome, but we are just scratching the surface. Many women in Ireland continue to travel for much-needed surgery to the UK and further afield because they cannot get the specialist care that they need here. We still have a very lengthy period of time that women wait to get properly diagnosed. It is on average nine years. As I said, early intervention is key as the longer this disease is left unchecked, the more havoc it wreaks inside. There is a need for a comprehensive education programme at primary and secondary school levels, as happens in other countries. I will speak to the example of New Zealand where the menstrual education, ME, programme has been rolled out across schools and has been very effective. They have reduced their diagnosis times because they have educated young women and girls as to what is normal and what is not in terms of menstrual and reproductive health, so that women are empowered to ask the right questions, to seek the care they need and to demand that they get the treatment they so deserve. I request that at the earliest opportunity we invite the Minister for Health to this Chamber to have a specific discussion on the whole area of endometriosis, the care pathway, the treatment available, the diagnosis time and the education.

I request also statements with the Minister for Education because both Departments will have to work together on this. It is not just under the remit of the Minister for Health. It is an important topic. It is one of those many women's health issues that have gone unspoken of for generations because women were told it was just part of being a woman, you are one of the unlucky ones, just get on with it. We now know that is not true. We have a long way to go to educate young girls and women because much damage has been done over the years.