The Order of Business is No. 1, National Archives (Amendment) Bill 2017 - Second Stage, to be taken at 4.45 p.m., with the contribution of group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes and those of all other Senators not to exceed five minutes; and No. 2, Private Members' business, National Minimum Wage (Removal of Sub-minimum Rates of Pay) Bill 2017 - Second Stage, to be taken on the conclusion of No. 1, with the time allocated to this debate not to exceed two hours.

The first item I wish to raise is related to the referendum on Friday. The people of Ireland spoke loudly and clearly on Friday when they voted overwhelmingly to repeal the eighth amendment. This ultimately means that the women of Ireland will now have equal access to healthcare in this jurisdiction.

I am very grateful to the Members of the Oireachtas who campaigned for this issue, both during the time of this Government and over the past 35 years. I also thank all the civic society groups which spearheaded this campaign across all walks of life and across the whole country. I thank members of my own party who supported the campaign to repeal, especially my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin. I welcome the Minister's memo to Cabinet today and commend him on all his hard work. I commend the Government's approval of the memo to initiate the passing of the legislation for the repeal of the eighth amendment and I look forward very much to supporting its speedy passage through this House.

We need to be clear on the timetable for the passing of this legislation. It has been pointed out that women across the country will continue to face crisis pregnancies on a daily basis. The need for this legislation to be implemented is crucial to activate the democratic will of the people. This was and is a complex and emotional matter that conjured up very strong emotions on both sides of the debate. I ask those who supported retaining the eighth amendment to accede to the democratic will of the people and facilitate the passing of this legislation through both Houses of the Oireachtas. I believe it is time for them to put aside their conscience and legislate in accordance with the clear will of the Irish people.

The second issue I want to raise concerns the reports that parents of schoolchildren had to spend €46 million last year to make up for shortfalls following funding cuts to capitation grants. That is according to the Catholic Primary School Management Association. Schools across the country have lost €110 million since cuts to capitation grants were first made. Unfortunately, those cuts disproportionately affect schools in disadvantaged areas where parents do not have the means or resources to subsidise Government cuts.

One school in particular in Bluebell, Our Lady of the Wayside national school, which is a DEIS school, is very lucky because it has a dedicated principal in Anne McCluskey. The school was built in the 1960s and, as we can imagine, it remains a 1960s school with very little improvements having been made to it; it has a similar massive fuel bill. The school cannot qualify for Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grants as it cannot match the funding from its resources. It cannot do insulation work or run the school more efficiently. The school receives an ancillary grant of €16,000 per year to go towards secretarial and caretaker services but that does not go very far. It just about pays for a part-time secretary. Ms McCluskey spends her own time trying to care for the site and the extensive grounds and has done that for the past six years.

This matter was brought to the attention of the House previously yet we see the Government is still slow to move and is failing to invest in schools in disadvantaged areas. That was evident in the Minister's new schools plan in which not one school in the Dublin 8 and 12 areas was included. I ask the Minister to come to the House today to explain the reason he is failing to invest in children who live in disadvantaged areas.

I do not intend to say very much on the referendum other than that the people have spoken and it now falls to us to put in place the legislation. I do not want to single anybody out but long before I came into the Oireachtas, Senator Bacik was always front and centre on women's issues. She must feel greatly vindicated at this stage for her work and I want to congratulate her for that.

I thank the Senator.

This morning we heard from the Garda Representative Association, GRA, conference that one in four gardaí may be suffering from work-related stress or trauma. That is according to a survey carried out by the GRA. The survey, carried out by psychotherapist Dr. Finian Fallon, described 27% of those who responded as potentially walking wounded. Just over 2,200 gardaí responded to an email survey. There was a response rate of 38%, with two thirds of respondents male and one third female.

This is the second survey of people in uniform which shows that this country is in dire straits. The survey shows that gardaí are frustrated by the amount of paperwork they have to do. They do not feel they have the right equipment or training to do the job properly and that senior managers do not appreciate the challenges they face. That is a damning line.

The GRA has said that the majority of the gardaí are not trained to properly police this State, particularly in areas of roads policing and sexual offences. The organisation, which began its annual conference in Wexford yesterday, points out that detectives who carry guns are not trained in tactics and front-line gardaí are not trained to respond to terrorist incidents. That is damning. I carried weapons for ten years of my life and not being trained regularly in the use of tactics with respect to carrying weapons which have the potential to kill is just unbelievable.

The GRA also said that most rank and file gardaí do not have full driver training qualifications. A vehicle driven at high speed by somebody who is not qualified to drive it is a lethal weapon. The GRA stated that 52 laws have been brought in over the past eight years but not one classroom training event has taken place.

It also stated the lack of welfare facilities for traumatised gardaí is of major concern.

The day after the Brexit vote was passed in the United Kingdom, I said a hard Brexit was also an issue, with delegates pointing out that 500 km of border, with 200 crossings, would require 1,000 extra gardaí along the Border. There are no plans in place to do this. We are sleepwalking towards a Brexit that may well be a hard one.

The health of members of the Garda and the absence of training are issues set to dominate the conference today. We really have to start looking after people in uniform. I agree the peace process has taken some of the emphasis off the uniformed services in this country but this is the second set of damning reports. The first concerned the Defence Forces and now the GRA is involved. I have no doubt the AGSI is in exactly the same situation. Senior members of the Garda have, at their conference, pointed out similar issues. We really have to do something about this. I ask the Leader to organise at his convenience a debate in the House with the Minister for Justice and Equality to discuss the Garda, in particular.

I was at a conference in Europe yesterday. It was a conference of the task force on subsidiarity, proportionality and doing less more efficiently. It is headed by Mr. Frans Timmermans. The conference specifically examined how we might get more done in Europe. I am convinced now that local government is not getting enough attention with respect to European directives and laws. There needs to be more interaction with local government. Too many decisions are made by centralised national governments right across the European Union. The conference showed that yesterday. We might also try to organise a debate on how we engage local government more on European affairs.

That was like a Second Stage speech.

I will be brief as I have to return to the education committee. I welcome the result of the referendum on Friday. When I cast my vote, I was definitely not expecting to see such a high turnout, nor was I expecting almost two thirds to vote "Yes". I campaigned throughout the day on Friday until 9 p.m., reminding people to vote on the way home from work. I definitely knew something was changing when men, the demographic we were all told we needed to worry about, were the ones passing us in their work vans, skip vans and articulated trucks, all beeping and giving us the thumbs up in support.

I had a conversation that evening with a friend of mine who had to travel. She asked me whether I really thought she would wake up the next day and be welcomed home. I realised there and then just how much the vote meant to so many women who did not feel at home in their own country for so long. I hope they now feel welcomed home.

I thank all the grassroots campaigners. I single out Deputy Clare Daly, who, as someone who has led campaigns like this, has been somewhat invisible in recent weeks on the platforms and screens but she has definitely been at the forefront for many years in pulling politicians into the conversation and thinking about equal access to healthcare for women in Ireland.

I welcome to the Visitors' Gallery my colleagues, my comrades, from SIPTU's Limerick district council: honorary president Frank McDonnell, John Higgins, Marian O'Callaghan, Mary McElligott, Antoinette Sheen and Breffni Monahan. I am delighted they are here today to see us reflect on the referendum result. It was a very conclusive result in Limerick, with 67% in favour of repeal. There is no doubt that the people have spoken. There is no doubt that they spoke in favour of legislation, as reflected in the Government's general heads of Bill. It was a very emotional day.

I am proud to say our party opposed the original referendum in 1983. That was my first involvement in politics. To be frank, it was not a particularly pleasant time. I note the way our society has changed and, in particular, the way a new, young generation of people, particularly women, has become engaged in the debate, the way in which the conversations developed over recent months and the way our own people got behind the repeal campaign.

Among the questions people asked afterwards was whether I celebrated and whether it was appropriate to celebrate. I did celebrate, along with a number of others, in Limerick on Saturday afternoon. To be clear, I was not celebrating abortion but the fact that this awful amendment - this symbol of oppression - is finally to be removed from our Constitution. It is important to reflect on the consistency of the vote across the State. A total of 68% of people in almost every constituency, be it urban or rural, were in favour of repeal so this idea that there would be a huge urban-rural divide turned out not to be the case.

Many people deserve credit. Obviously, I am very proud of our party leader, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. I could name the members of the Citizens' Assembly, Ms Catherine McGuinness and everybody involved in Together for Yes. It is entirely appropriate to pay tribute to Senator Bacik in particular given her long service with regard to this issue. I pay tribute to the trade unions which paid a key part in the campaign, including my own union, SIPTU, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. I also recognise politicians on the other side of the debate, particularly the people in this Chamber who argued with sincerity for a "No" vote and argued with respect and dignity throughout.

In terms of what is to be done now, it is important that we all unite around the result the people have given us. We need to act on the instructions of the people and do so as swiftly as possible because for every week and month we fail to enact the legislative framework will mean putting women in the way of danger. I must say that I accept the Government's bona fides in this regard and I am encouraged to hear that we will see legislation before the summer break. There is a case to be made, as our leader did in the Dáil earlier this afternoon, for a swift repeal of the Regulation of Information (Services outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act to ensure that women who have to travel in the meantime are not restricted and will at least be able to get a proper referral and have access to their case files.

I cannot forget to mention the North because so many activists came down from the North to campaign for repeal. We now have a situation where people in the North have no rights in respect of this issue. We need to see harmonisation across the island. I assure the House that Sinn Féin will campaign for that.

There is the bigger issue of church-State separation. I call for a debate on that issue but that is for another day.

I was alarmed to read in today's edition of the Irish Independent where it was alleged-----

Sorry, I overlooked Senator Bacik. My apologies for that. I moved too quickly.

I thank colleagues for their kind remarks and I strongly welcome the resounding two-thirds majority for a "Yes" vote on Friday. The people have spoken very clearly. As somebody who has campaigned on this issue for nearly three decades since I was taken to court and threatened with prison by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, SPUC, back in 1989 when I was president of Trinity College's student union, I am pleased to see the clear and decisive mandate for change in the law from across the country and from almost every constituency, as others have said. Like colleagues, I urge the Government to move swiftly in bringing forward the legislation, on which the Labour Party and other parties will certainly co-operate.

The people have spoken decisively. I commend the wonderful Together for Yes national civil society campaign with which I was very proud to be involved. I also commend my party, the Labour Party, which opposed the amendment in 1983 and whose members have campaigned for many years to repeal the eighth amendment - people like Deputy Brendan Howlin, Mary Robinson, Catherine McGuinness and others. Senator Gavan spoke about the trade union movement but I also wish to mention the student union movement nationally, particularly the student union in Trinity College, which led a formidable campaign around Dublin. Nationally, student unions and the Union of Students in Ireland also mobilised enormous numbers of young people which was very welcome. I am delighted that the constituency in which I live and which I canvassed most extensively had the highest "Yes" vote in the country, at 78.5%, which is a resounding result.

I join with colleagues in saying that not only should the Government move forward swiftly on the legislation to replace the eighth amendment - the regulation of termination of pregnancy legislation - but some interim and more immediate measures also need to be taken. I have already spoken with the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach and this does not only include the repeal of the Regulation of Information (Services outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act. The Irish Family Planning Association, an organisation with a proud tradition on this matter, has called for repeal of the Act and it is quite right. It is time to remove the Act immediately. There is no longer any constitutional imperative for the restriction on referral to clinics or hospitals in Great Britain.

It is significantly impeding doctors' clinical practice and counsellors and, therefore, we need to repeal the 1995 Act.

In addition, the Government should move swiftly in the next week to delete the criminal sanction from the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. It is invidious that doctors and women would face criminal penalty if, for example, a woman imports abortion pills tomorrow or the next day, or if a doctor performs a termination of pregnancy in a case of fatal foetal abnormality. I was questioned on this earlier by a journalist who suggested that if we removed the criminal sanction, a floodgate would open. I think we have seen the floodgate argument pretty decisively defeated in the referendum campaign and I do not think there is any prospect at all of floodgates opening. However, we know that, already, three or four women are importing pills every day and we need to ensure they no longer do so with the threat of criminal sanction hanging over them, now the people have spoken so resoundingly.

I call on the Leader to make representations to the Government on moving forward, not only with the more detailed framework legislation on termination of pregnancy but more swiftly on those immediate measures we could take to remove measures that are no longer required to remain in our statute law because the constitutional imperative has been removed. It would be a very important symbolic gesture, apart from anything else, to recognise this overwhelming result in Friday's exercise in democracy by the people. I agree the next step is separation of church and State in other ways, and we have certainly seen that as an imperative as well. My colleague, Senator Ó Ríordáin, has called for the setting up a citizens' assembly to examine, in particular, the issue of divestment of schools, given that over 90% of primary schools remain under Catholic Church control. That is the next campaign and a related one.

For today, I thank colleagues for their kind words. I very much welcome this decisive result and ask the Leader to make representations on the next steps.