We welcome this Bill. The free contraception scheme launched in 2022 was ground-breaking at the time but access to it has been an issue. In that regard, it is most welcome that prescription rights have been extended to pharmacists by this legislation. The other critical thing is that for all those women not eligible for the free contraception scheme - and I will talk about that in a minute - it will lower the cost of renewing their prescription. I think we are all in agreement that when there is no medical need to attend a GP, it makes eminent sense to allow pharmacists operate to the top of their licence and to devolve greater care to them in the community. We welcome that. There are cost barriers and geographical barriers, particularly for women in rural areas, to accessing their GP. An issue I have raised many times in this House is access to GPs in socially disadvantaged or fast-growing areas, where we know there is a lack of access or a long wait to access GPs. Empowering pharmacists to renew prescriptions is most welcome. When the scheme was introduced, it was for 17-to-25-year-olds and then it was extended to women up to their 36th year. The time has now come to extend the age range. We know the cost of extending it from 36- to 40-year-olds is just €5 million. It is not a big amount of money in the overall health budget but it would have a fundamental impact on women of this age. We know there are women well into their 40s who need access to contraception. We believe changing the age limit from 36 to 40, at a minimum, should happen now. As I said, it would be at not much cost. The other key issue is access. We spent a bit of time during the week talking to the National Women's Council. The research it has conducted is very interesting, whereby 36% of survey participants spoke about very real barriers, particularly for those do not have a PPS number, which is a requirement to access the scheme. There is an issue with regard to women in IPAS centres who do not have a PPS number. There is also an issue with regard to cultural prejudices, particularly assumptions by some healthcare providers that disabled women or LGBTQ+ women do not need contraception. We need to send out the very clear message that this should not be the case. I have already mentioned the geographical barriers. We need to look at the measures that can be taken to ensure greater access to this very important scheme and in this regard we will bring forward amendments when this comes before the Dáil next week. We believe the Bill is very positive but it is timely to look at expanding the scheme to women aged up to 40 years. We also need to look at the age of access. We know the medical age of consent in this country is 16 but the age of access to the scheme is 17. We need to standardise this imbalance and ensure the age of access is 16. We also need to deal with the very specific barriers for women in IPAS centres and undocumented migrants who do not have a PPS number but very much should be able to access the scheme like every other woman in the country. I welcome the Bill but we need to do more to ensure it reaches all of the women in the country it should reach.

Sentiment score: 0.20