This day next week, 8 March, is International Women's Day. This year will be different because women all over the world will participate in co-ordinated actions against sexism and for reproductive rights. For the first time in history there has been a call for a global strike on International Women's Day. Participants are asked to strike, to either take a day off work or wear black, as I am doing today, and to assemble to demand rights that are being denied. There will be a huge focus on this country because the strike will centre on the need for repeal of one of the cruelest abortion bans in the world.

Three events will take place next week. On Monday, the Bus 4 Repeal will travel, providing access to safe medical abortion pills that are banned in this country but are considered essential medicine by the WHO. On Wednesday, the Strike 4 Repeal will assemble at 12.30 p.m. on O'Connell Bridge and a march for repeal will take place at 5.30 p.m., which is organised by the Coalition to Repeal the Eight Amendment. The coalition is made up of a huge number of groups, including the National Women's Council and others.

The Taoiseach's failure to hold a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment has been raised with him many times. It does not look like we will get anything different from his two potential replacements because there has been generational change in attitudes on abortion and while there will be generational change in the Fine Gael leadership it does not look like there will be generational change on abortion. The Taoiseach's two apprentices are old heads on young shoulders. They are still stuck in the past on this issue and neither of them believe in women's bodily autonomy, which means they are very divorced from the generation they represent. In Ireland, the movement's hashtag is "#wewontwait". The mantra from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and now the Independents is that women should just dutifully wait for the Citizens' Assembly to give its verdict but in the real world crisis pregnancies continue. Does the Taoiseach have advice for a young woman who sent a message to my Facebook page yesterday?

Please help me with advice if u can. I'm in a really really bad situation. I can't sleep at night with worry... I've taken so much time off work because all I do is cry... every day... It's destroying me and I feel so trapped... I'm at a dead end with this pregnancy. My partner was so violent and he's completely abandoned me.

What is the Taoiseach's advice to that woman? Is it to suck it up and wait for the Citizens' Assembly? Women and young people are not prepared to wait any longer for bishops to pontificate at the Citizens' Assembly, as they will next week. Young people who will march next week will not be told and tone policed. Why did it take only two and half years for the so-called pro-life amendment campaign to get a referendum that nobody wanted and that was sectarian and mediaeval but five years after the death of Savita Halappanavar in October 2012, we still do not have a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment? Can the Taoiseach tell us why that is?

The Deputy has given a long news broadcast about events taking place and she is entitled to do that. She seems to know something I do not know about numbers contesting some vacancy at some time in the future. She seems to have more detail than I do.

In regard to the young woman the Deputy said wrote to her, there is no reason for that young woman not to have assistance made available to her in respect of domestic violence, something she mentioned in her letter to the Deputy. She can have that assistance and support today and the Deputy should advise her that this is immediately available to her. She should not have to live in a situation where her partner is violent in the way described by the Deputy.

The Citizens' Assembly continues to meet and it has received 13,000 submissions in respect of the issues it must consider. Ms Justice Laffoy will report before the end of June. That has been and is a very worthwhile exercise. Clearly, it is a sensitive issue. The Deputy has her point of view. Many others may have a different point of view. It is only right and proper that the Citizens' Assembly, which the House approved, is entitled to consider its work and make its presentation to us here. In due course, the Oireachtas will deliberate on that and vote on whether or not there should be a referendum and if so, what that should mean.

The woman does not want to be pregnant and is looking for access to an abortion. She is not entitled to do that in this country. I want to make that clear. That is her decision - not the Taoiseach's decision or the decision of any of the lads beside him. The Citizens' Assembly is proving itself to be a very conservative talking shop from which anybody with a view is eliminated and is not even discussing the central issue of health as cornerstone and basis for any change on abortion in this country. It has not even got around to discussing it, which is incredible five years on from the death of Savita Halappanavar. The other issue about the Citizens' Assembly is that next Monday, a load of people, including bishops, will line up to tell women how they should feel about what is really a personal decision. International Women's Day will be very different. It is good that it is returning to the tradition on which it was founded, namely, struggle and working-class and ordinary people demanding their rights. It is very clear that things are going backwards for women under capitalism. Look at Donald Trump, etc. The women who took the contraception train - the Taoiseach was 20 at the time so he should know something about it - were also told that they were being shrill. They were told to tone it down and that their tactics were deplorable. Who would say now that they did not make a historic change? That is what will happen with the women and young people who will be marching next Wednesday.

I hope that the global events that will take place on International Women's Day will be significant in their own way. The agenda for the Citizens' Assembly is set by Ms Justice Laffoy together with the group. Obviously, it has taken into account a range of views. Those who appeared before the Citizens' Assembly have been invited to do so. People with different views have spoken and will speak to the assembly. I am quite sure it will discuss the question of health for women, which is so important, before it finishes its work. The Deputy indicated that the young woman who wrote to her cried every evening and night because of a domestic violence situation.

In her second comment, the Deputy made the point that the young woman wants to end her pregnancy. Abortion is illegal in this country, except in very specific circumstances. I do not have the details and it is not my remit to adjudicate on that. There is a very precise issue there in the law.

I look forward to the conclusions of the Citizens' Assembly. The House will deliberate on those in due course and Members will vote according to their conscience.