I welcome our distinguished guests on both sides of the House. I also wish all the Czech nationals who live in Ireland a good day today as they celebrate their culture and history.

The Order of Business is No. 1, Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person (Amendment) (Spiking) Bill 2023 – Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages, to be taken at 12.45 p.m. and adjourn not later than 2.30 p.m., if not previously concluded; No. 2, Employment Equality (Amendment) (Non-Disclosure Agreements) Bill 2021 – Report and Final Stages, to be taken at 3 p.m. and to adjourn at 5 p.m., if not previously concluded; and No. 3, statements on the political situation in Northern Ireland, to be taken at 6 p.m. and to conclude after 90 minutes, if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed eight minutes, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes and the Minister to be given not less than ten minutes to reply to the debate.

I thank the Acting Leader for outlining the Order of Business with which I am in agreement. I welcome Mr. Vurm and Mr. Brennan from the Czech Embassy and wish them a very happy national day, as the Acting Leader and Leas-Chathaoirleach have done. I wish all Czechs living in Ireland a very happy national day and hope all the Irish people living in the Czech Republic enjoy the day also. I know they had a very successful event recently in the Czech Embassy. I was given the privilege of speaking at the embassy's national day function last year to wish the outgoing ambassador the very best on his retirement and the new ambassador, who is coming in early January if I am right, the very best.

I attended an event yesterday evening and I wish to pay a small tribute to the honorary consul of Ireland to New Zealand who held that role for more than 40 years. He is back in Ireland at the moment visiting from New Zealand. At 88 years of age, Mr. Rodney Walshe was one of the first recipients of the President's award for outstanding service that Irish people have given abroad. Our own Billy Lawless got the award at a later date. Mr. Walshe has done amazing work. He went to New Zealand in 1959 and in the 1960s started a family and set up businesses there. He was actually the Irish, if you like, agent for Bord Fáilte, which became Tourism Ireland, promoting Ireland in New Zealand. He was also the agent for Butlers Chocolates and had many other interests. He is still hale and hearty. Last night, there was a gathering in Buswells Hotel to celebrate his visit to Ireland. He attended the rugby game and regardless of who won he was going to be happy, although he would have preferred if Ireland had beaten New Zealand. Many of us will wish New Zealand well at the weekend, while wishing it was Ireland in the final, of course.

On a more serious note, we have an upcoming bank holiday weekend. I ask all Senators to make an appeal to our followers and supporters and those who look at our social media content. There always seem to be more road fatalities, injuries and accidents on bank holiday weekends. There are obviously more people travelling on the roads and people may be distracted and tired. While enforcement and education play a part, it is up to all of us to be vigilant. I was cycling this morning and a lady nearly walked out onto the bike lane while listening to headphones. She was very apologetic and we were both happy that nothing happened but accidents are caused in a split second. The Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, will appear before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, of which I am Chair, this afternoon to discuss road safety and his upcoming road safety Bill.

We have had a very difficult year this year, particularly at weekends. The RSA came before the committee. The points it made related in particular to evenings, weekends, younger males, intoxication and speed. Those are the issues that feature over and over again. I am not trying to target anybody. I am trying to warn people so they can be safe. Let us have a bank holiday weekend where there are no accidents and no fatalities. That would be helpful to all of us.

I welcome Daniel Cline and Councillor Maguire, who I know very well, along with her mother May McKeon, who was a wonderful councillor for many years and with whom I served on the regional authority.

A story in today's edition of The Irish Times refers to Dublin Airport. We need a debate about the longer-term development of Dublin Airport. We are talking about having to cap numbers at Christmas so we need that debate.

I join Senator Horkan in welcoming our dignitaries from the Czech Republic and wishing them and our Czech population here a good day.

The budget has been revolutionary and radical in its improvements for children, a vulnerable section of our population that is the future of our country but that would not necessarily have a voice. A couple of radical things happened in the budget. The second reduction in the cost of childcare, bringing it down by 50% in two years, is extraordinarily radical. The doubling of child benefit at Christmas is a huge step, as are the various interventions in terms of free school textbooks and free school meals up to junior certificate, the various interventions in third level education and medical cards continuing after the age of 18.

However, we should never rest on our laurels or assume that all is well in the state of Denmark because we have done significant things. For this reason, I raise an issue that remains difficult and contentious, namely, child and adult mental health services. There are two issues here. The Acting Leader is a former primary teacher so I have no doubt that this subject is close to her heart. We need to know there is quality of service and there has been dispute about that. We need objective criteria to be very sure the best personnel and best regulated service are in place. Critically, we need to reduce waiting lists. I know there has been progress and I know the Acting Leader will be able to report progress on behalf of the Government but it is unacceptable that an adolescent would wait for more than a month for mental health services. In some instances, even waiting for a month is too long but waiting for over a month is unacceptable. It is also unacceptable for there to be any diminution in or lack of quality in the service and for there to be a total reliance on drugs or quick expedients to solve a problem that needs a deeper and possibly more costly intervention. I want the Acting Leader to bring to the attention of the Government that we want waiting times to be no longer than a month and that no other objective is acceptable, that we want a quality service and that there can be no suggestion of an over-reliance on drugs or any failures in that regard.

I also welcome our distinguished guests on both sides, including our Czech guests, who will be aware that the infant child of Prague played an important role in the success of many an Irish wedding by being left outside on the eve of the wedding in the hope of getting good weather for the photographs the following day, although I know of one unhappy Irish mother who in her pique at the bad weather left the infant child of Prague out for the whole week just to punish him in the elements subsequently.

On a more sombre note, I attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health last week where the report of the three-year review of abortion legislation was discussed. This report drew on research that interviewed 58 women who had abortions and doctors who performed abortions. It leaned on the WHO's so-called abortion care guidelines of 2022, which advocate removing mandatory waiting periods. What is interesting is that the report and its writers did not examine or even reference other jurisdictions that have mandatory abortion waiting periods, including over half of all US states and several countries. In May, the chairperson of the review replied, "No, I have not" when asked whether the report's writers had spoken to any women who went through the three-day waiting period in Ireland and decided to go ahead and have their child. Even more remarkably, when asked last week if there was anywhere in the world where there was a mandatory three-day delay for any medical procedure, the chairperson Marie O'Shea said, "Not that I am aware of". Evidently, she was unaware of or ignored the jurisdictions that have mandatory waiting periods for abortion. That is remarkable.

You have the chairperson of the abortion review, which is supposed to be an independent and evidence-led report, providing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health with inaccurate information, failing to bring relevant information to the committee, failing to refer to it in the report and implying, as she seems to wish to do, that Ireland was an international outlier in mandating a three-day waiting period and that we were somehow out of step. It beggars belief and raises the question about the money spent on this so-called independent report. It is not a joke. It is an expensive joke at the expense of the Irish taxpayer.

The report cited a study by the START doctors' group claiming that just 2% of women made the initial appointment but did not proceed to the second appointment but ignored information from the HSE showing the overall figure was closer to 16.5% of all initial cases. There was obvious cherry-picking of which evidence to include in this review and which to exclude. There was no interview with a single woman who changed her mind and did not have an abortion. While it was claimed that it would somehow be unethical to interview women with this experience, as it would be potential traumatic to ask why they changed their minds and then had the baby, these same researchers did not express such a concern about the ethics of the traumatising impact of interviewing survivors of sexual assault who had abortions, an experience that is potentially far more traumatic than a woman using the three-day waiting period to reflect on her options and deciding to keep her baby.

Serious questions must be asked about this report, which was supposed to be independent, and the highly tendentious and partisan approach its chair and writers have taken in the preparation of the report and in their evidence before the committee. At its worst, it is misinformation and, at best, it is failing to bring relevant information to the committee. The Minister for Health should answer questions about how this report was organised, how much money was spent on it and what the Government is going to do now in light of the misleading of people about some very relevant issues.