Minister must make good on the promises he made to women

HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly is to be applauded for his focus on women’s health and the initiatives he has advanced, including free contraception for those between 17 and 30 and subsidised IVF treatment. For far too long, the State’s interactions with these policy areas have been flawed at best, and negligent at worst.

But if the minister makes headlines for calling for such measures, they must be backed up with action. Today, we reveal that just under 30,000 women are on the waiting list for gynaecological appointments to treat a wide range of conditions, from heavy periods to endometriosis, and another 5,748 women are waiting for in-patient treatment.

This is despite the minister’s promise last year that 12 new ‘see and treat’ gynaecological centres would open. To date, only six have opened, leaving swathes of the country – including parts of Kerry, Westmeath, Galway, Cavan and west Dublin – with inadequate services for women.

Obviously, recent HSE budget travails have meant that some of his signature policies are under threat, but it behoves the State to realise that it cannot be the more vulnerable, in this case women with often painful and debilitating conditions, who feel the brunt of any cutbacks due to very public policy disputes and deliberate understatement of the funding the HSE needs.

This State has a long history of treating women badly, from mother and baby homes to the Hep C scandal, symphysiotomy to Cervical Check. In the week that saw the first anniversary of the death of tireless campaigner Vicky Phelan, it is more important than ever that the next generation of women in this country are treated with more dignity and respect than women were shown in the first 100 years of the State’s existence.

It is well beyond time that these issues were appropriately legislated for and the necessary resources provided. Mr Donnelly is obliged to fulfil promises that, while made in good faith, run the risk of being painted as headline-grabbing hype that later founders on a lack of will to follow through in implementation.

GIVE OUR JUDGES SENTENCING POWER

DURING the sentencing hearing of Jozef Puska on Friday for the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy, Judge Tony Hunt made the eminently reasonable suggestion that, as well as imposing mandatory life sentences for murder, judges also should have the power to make discretionary orders relating to the minimum prison term to be served.

As things stand, only those convicted of capital murder, for example someone who kills a member of An Garda Síochána, face a mandatory term of 40 years. Murderers of civilians can apply to the justice minister for parole after just 12 years in prison, while the average term served is around 18 years.

Judges hear every word of evidence and are best placed to make assessments of a murderer’s motives. In the case of the wretched Puska, Mr Hunt spoke of ‘evil in this room’. There surely can be no one who would claim that setting minimum tariffs of up to 30 years would infringe on anyone’s human rights.

There is no reason why a properly constituted judicial system cannot facilitate minimum sentencing by the person in whom responsibility for running the trial, hearing all the evidence and instructing the jury has already been placed.