This Bill, which is overdue, is a small step in the expansion of community pharmacy and women's healthcare services. Sinn Féin will support the Bill. It is a sensible measure that recognises the expertise of community pharmacists and reduces unnecessary barriers for women who need repeat prescriptions for contraception. Community pharmacists are among the most accessible healthcare professionals in the country. They are embedded in each of our communities. They are trusted and are often more accessible than a GP. Allowing appropriately trained pharmacists to prescribe repeat contraception following the initial GP consultation will make life easier for women. It will reduce unnecessary GP appointments and ease pressure on primary care. While this Bill is welcome, it also exposes limits that exist in the Government's ambition for women's healthcare. Time and again we see individual announcements presented as major reforms while broader inequalities remain untouched. The clearest example of this is the free contraception scheme itself. Today if you are 35 years of age you qualify. Tomorrow when you turn 36 you do not. Nothing has changed about your healthcare needs overnight, yet suddenly you are expected to pay the full cost yourself. To me that makes absolutely no sense. Women do not stop needing contraception because they have reached an arbitrary birthday. Nor is every form of contraception solely used to prevent pregnancy anymore. Many women continue to rely on contraception throughout their late 30s and into their 40s. Others use hormonal medication not only for contraception but to manage heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and a range of other medical conditions, yet these women are excluded. Women experiencing perimenopause and menopause are in the same situation. In some situations, they are paying significant costs for hormone treatments that are essential to their health, their quality of life and, most importantly, that work for them and have been recommended by their doctor. Women's healthcare cannot continue to be designated around arbitrary age limits. It should be based on clinical need. Research published earlier this year found that almost one in three women still experience barriers to accessing the free contraception scheme. Those barriers include eligibility restrictions, awareness, availability and access. This tells us that among some of those women who technically qualify, the system is still falling short. The Bill also provides the rest of the House an opportunity to ask a much bigger question of Government. Why do we continue to treat women's health as a collection of separate initiatives instead of building a comprehensive service? Women's health does not begin at 17 and it does not end at 35. It begins in adolescence. It continues through the reproductive years, pregnancy, postnatal care, potential fertility challenges, perimenopause, menopause and into older age. Yet, women are too often expected to navigate a fragmented system paying for consultation after consultation and moving between different professionals without a structured co-ordinated approach. Sinn Féin believes there is a better way. We have proposed a structured women's health scheme delivered through primary care to bring together those GPs, pharmacists, practice nurses and allied health professionals in a co-ordinated model centred on women's needs throughout every stage of their lives. That would mean earlier intervention, better continuity of care, less duplication and ultimately better outcomes. It would also recognise what women have been saying for years. Our healthcare is not a niche issue. It is not an optional extra. It is not a specialist add-on. It is fundamental to our overall well-being and healthcare. While we support the legislation I challenge the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Government to go further and expand the free contraception scheme beyond the current age limits, ensure that hormone therapies are affordable and accessible to women who need them and embed women's health properly across primary and community care instead of relying on isolated initiatives. The women who fall outside of the current scheme, those aged over 35, those living with conditions that requiring hormone therapies, those navigating perimenopause and menopause and those who continue to face financial barriers deserve more than this small step, no matter how welcome it may be. They deserve a healthcare system that sees them and supports them throughout their life cycle and values them at each stage of all of them.

Sentiment score: 0.19