Given the news on Monday that cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has died, The Irish Times has extensive coverage this morning looking at the impact she has had on women’s healthcare.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin led the political tributes to Ms Phelan, calling her a woman of “extraordinary courage and integrity”. Opposition leaders also praised the campaigner with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald describing her as a “champion of women” and a “campaigner who took on the State and won”.
Expect to hear many more tributes in the Dáil on Tuesday, but the Opposition will also want updates on key reforms promised by the Government. Ms Phelan was a staunch advocate for patients being given all their medical information and she demanded fresh open disclosure policies, which the Government agreed to.
Despite this, legislation on mandatory open disclosure still has not passed through the Oireachtas.
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The Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill, which provides for mandatory open disclosure, passed first stage in the Dáil in 2019 but amendments are still being drafted. Sinn Féin is this morning calling on Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to expedite work on the Bill.
Furthermore, as Simon Carswell reports this morning, the final report from the Government-appointed investigator, Dr Gabriel Scally, is due in the coming weeks.
Dr Scally says this morning that it will be “full and frank” on reforms left undone.
As Carswell reports, Dr Scally’s review is “likely to find that while many of his original reform recommendations have been implemented, significant work needs to be done in areas such as mandatory disclosure and the handling of patient concerns.”
Ahead of questions in the Dáil later, a few articles on Ms Phelan’s life stand out.
In his profile of Ms Phelan, Paul Cullen writes that she “communicated with tremendous eloquence, never talking down to people, and never shying away from the reality of her situation while shirking mawkish sentimentality.”
In her piece, Jen Hogan captures a lot of Ms Phelan’s personality: engaging and down to earth.
Mary Carolan looks at the legal implications and how Ms Phelan’s case paved the way for other women.
Miriam Lord writes about how Ms Phelan didn’t want accolades or broken promises. Just action and change.
Here is The Irish Times view: news of Vicky Phelan’s death “arrived like a collective, wounding blow.”
And finally, Ms Phelan’s husband Jim told of how “she was the heart and soul of our family unit and her passing will leave a void in all our lives, that at this point seems impossible to fill.”
Christmas turkeys, football and gambling
Cabinet meets this morning with a number of meaty items on the agenda.
Harry McGee has been hard at work digging around the list of memos, and reports this morning on a long-awaited piece of legislation to crack down on the harm caused by gambling.
He reports that gambling companies who fail to protect children from accessing their services will face punitive sanctions including imprisonment of up to eight years.
The Gambling Regulation Bill is coming before the Cabinet for approval and will fundamentally change the rules of gambling in Ireland for both physical gambling and the online industry.
The legislation will introduce a range of sweeping measures to protect consumers, those who are problem gamblers, and vulnerable users, especially children.
The Bill is being brought to Cabinet by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee on behalf of James Browne.
Among the new measures to protect children will be a ban on gambling advertising between the hours of 5.30am to 9pm each day.
Read the full details of this extensive new law here.
Meanwhile, Minister for Sport Catherine Martin and Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers will seek Cabinet approval to submit a formal joint bid to host Euro 2028.
This could see Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium potentially host seven games in Euro 28, if the joint bid from Ireland and the UK is successful.
As Harry reports, the bid is believed to have a very strong possibility of success as there is only one other bidder to host the tournament, Turkey.
And speaking of turkey, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is also expected to tell Cabinet colleagues that the supply of turkeys in the run-up to Christmas could be impacted if there are further outbreaks of the highly contagious avian flu on poultry farms.
Mr McConalogue will update the Cabinet on efforts to contain avian flu in Ireland, following the culling of 3,000 turkeys on a Co Monaghan farm this week.
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Playbook
Dáil
Leaders’ Questions are up at 2pm followed by the Order of Business and then Taoiseach’s Questions at 3.05pm. Government business will involve statements for science week. Private Members’ Business is up after 4pm with a motion from Sinn Féin on firefighters.
Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath will take questions on his brief at 8.15pm. Topical Issues are up at 9.45pm. The Dáil adjourns at 10.30pm.
Here is the full schedule.
Seanad
Commencement Matters will be taken at 2.30pm followed by the Order of Business an hour later. There will be a motion on horse and greyhound racing regulations, and then for Government business there will be statements on forestry with the Department of Agriculture. The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022 is up at 6.30pm and the Seanad adjourns two hours later.
A more detailed schedule can be found here.
Committees
At 11am the Joint Committee on Education will hold a round-table discussion on mental health supports in schools and will hear from the HSE, Jigsaw and Spunout, among others.
Also at 11am the Joint Committee on Environment will hold a discussion in relation to sequestration and nature restoration. The committee will hear from representatives of Teagasc, among others.
At noon the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media will launch a report on the working conditions and skills shortages in Ireland’s tourism and hospitality sector.
At 3pm the Select Committee on Children and Equality will hold a committee stage consideration of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022. Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman will appear.
Here is the full schedule of public and private meetings.
