As this is my final Leaders' Questions, I will ask about something that is important to me and on which I have worked for many years. It relates to women's health. First, I acknowledge Vicky Phelan and wish her the very best from the floor of the Dáil, and I hope all Members share that with me. I also acknowledge and thank Ms Lorraine Walsh, Mr. Stephen Teap and Mr. John Wall for their support and the work we have done over the past number of years. They certainly have had the biggest impact on me politically, more so than probably anyone else. It is four years since Vicky won her High Court case in April 2018, when she bravely refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

We all know what happened with regard to CervicalCheck as a result of that. Huge progress has been made, and I acknowledge that.

We need to move on, however, in respect of a range of issues, such as a review of legislation on abortion to look at policy and the real problems with a lack of access for women and safe access zones. We also need to look at the national maternity hospital to make sure it is publicly owned and controlled. Nothing else is acceptable. When the CervicalCheck tribunal was established in 2020, I stated that it was not acceptable. I predicted that more than 200 cases would go to the High Court. There are now more than 300 cases before it. To date, it has received only 19 claims. For me the concerns were never addressed. It is never too late to do the right thing. This is shameful and wrong, and it should be looked at. Most of all, we have the final progress report of Dr. Scally on the recommendations of his scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck screening programme. There are four outstanding actions. Will the Tánaiste outline the status of these?

The issue that really concerns me is the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019. To be fair, the Tánaiste has history on this. It was published in December 2019 and debated in the Dáil but has been stuck on Committee Stage ever since. We need to get the Bill over the line because it would provide for mandatory open disclosure and ensure patients' voices are heard. This is about ensuring that people have an absolute right to know information about their healthcare and that hospitals, screening providers and doctors do not keep information from them. This has been going on for way too long. I ask, on behalf of Vicky and everyone else, that we address this as soon as possible and finally get it over the line. It is a dear request for me. I want to see this legislation get over the line. It is a big component of the recommendations in the Scally report.

Will the Tánaiste ensure the national maternity hospital is publicly owned and controlled? Will he provide a status report on the remaining recommendations in the Scally report? Most of all, and most importantly, will he indicate to the House that the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019 will be enacted and brought into operation very quickly?

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Deputy Kelly on the role he has played in recent years as leader of the Labour Party and as a Minister in a previous Government. Some people will say that the Labour Party has struggled to overcome its period in government. Quite frankly, however, it has a lot to be proud of when it comes to the period it spent in government between 2011 to 2016, which was a very difficult time. In the early part of that Government's term, as the Deputy will recall, I was the senior Minister in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and he was Minister of State. While we did not always agree, we did get on and we managed to get a lot of things done.

I particularly remember integrated ticketing, as we called it at the time but which we now call the Leap card. It had gone on for years and years. It was one of the projects the Deputy was given responsibility for. He really banged heads together. Sometimes being a bit brash is not necessarily a bad thing in politics. It required weekly meetings and it got done within months.

Another area for which the Deputy had responsibility was taxis. It was very difficult and an area that people ran away from. He managed to make some very important reforms that were good for passengers and consumers and for people who drive taxis. I want to recognise all of that on this occasion. They may seem like small things but they had not been fixed for a very long time. They were finally fixed because, by and large, Deputy Kelly is the kind of politician who gets things done.

In recent years, Deputy Kelly has taken a particular interest in issues regarding women's health, whether the eight amendment or CervicalCheck. He has been a very strong advocate for Vicky Phelan and a number of women who were affected by that debacle. I have seen their social media messages today, and they are very complimentary of the Deputy.

With regard to the Scally report, significant progress has been made in implementing its recommendations. The most recent progress report was published by the Department of Health just yesterday. It shows that as of the end of 2021 four out of the 170 actions remain to be completed. The Minister for Health has asked Dr. Scally to conduct a final progress review of the implementation plan. That is now under way.

Something that is of real importance, and the Deputy mentioned it, is the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019. The latter includes a mandatory requirement for open disclosure where a serious incident occurs. The Bill will also bring private hospitals within the remit of the Health Act. It also contains provisions to protect clinical audit. It was introduced in Dáil Éireann on 12 December 2019. It has passed Second Stage and needs to move to Committee Stage. I am informed it could go to Committee Stage as early as next week, but it will certainly do so in the coming weeks.

I thank the Tánaiste for his kind words. I appreciate them. The Bill is extremely important. I am delighted to hear that it will move to Committee Stage next week. The right of citizens to have access to their information and for nothing to be hidden from them is critical. It is the be-all and end-all of everything that came out of the Scally report. I absolutely feel that in honour of Vicky Phelan and many other people, including Ruth Morrissey, who was treated very badly by the State, we need to ensure that the Bill completes its passage this term. Will the Tánaiste make a commitment, if at all possible and working with all of us on this side of the House, to the effect that the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019 will be brought into law before the summer?

In the past few moments, the Minister for Health's office has confirmed that Committee Stage of the Bill will be taken next week. This will allow us to make progress. There are some changes the Minister wants to make. Some of them follow on from the examination Dr. Scally did on this matter and the civil liability amendment situation and some input from members of the 221+ support group. The plan is for it to move to Committee Stage next week. It is not entirely within the control of the Government as to how long the process in that regard takes. However, the Bill has been delayed a bit too long. We should all endeavour to get the legislation enacted no later than the end of this year.