Concerns voiced over cost of government giving out free tampons... whilst wording around women having periods continues to be an issue

In addition, unease continued to be voiced this week over the wording of the bill, which until recently omitted any mention of women, girls, or females.

The bill is the brainchild of SDLP MLA Pat Catney, and is formally called Period Products (Free Provision).

It aims to make tampons available in places like schools, colleges, and clinics.

It has been moving through the Assembly for many months; March 8 was the ‘consideration stage’ and March 15 was the ‘further consideration stage’ – the only two stages left are ‘final consideration’ and ‘royal assent’, with the last one being a mere formality.

It is a Private Member’s Bill, which means that it is being driven forward by Mr Catney as an individual, not as an official part of the five-party Executive’s plans.

When it came before the Assembly on Tuesday, DUP MLA Diane Dodds spoke up to query its price tag.

“I rise to support the general principles of the bill,” she told MLAs.

“It is an important bill that deals with social inclusion, poverty and ensuring that no girl is excluded from school or the workplace because of an inability to purchase period products.

“Having said all that – the member knows that I’ve been consistent in this view – this is another example of a Private Member’s Bill that will bring significant cost but that has no business case to outline the cost to the taxpayer.”

The News Letter had asked the SDLP about the costing of the bill a couple of times this week; it did not respond.

When it was being debated a week earlier, Mr Catney had said that “the Department of Health predicted that the cost would be anywhere between 4p and 49p per product”.

But he said that a pilot scheme in Scotland worked out at 9p per tampon for 1,000 users, adding: “I’d be extremely disappointed in our procurement process if we managed to average a significantly higher cost than that for 100 times the number of users.”

As the News Letter has previously reported, when the bill was being drafted it deliberately did not mention women, girls, or females in order to satisfy transgender activists, who say boys and “non-binary people” also menstruate – a view endorsed by Mr Catney.

A bid was later made to re-instate females into the text.

This wouldhave meant that the the bill was designed to meet the needs of “a woman, girl or other person for period products arising from menstruation by that person”.

But when it came before the Assembly on Tuesday, this was altered slightly to refer to “a person who menstruates (whether that person is a woman, girl or other person).”

Mrs Dodds said the DUP opposed this new wording, saying it had not properly “emphasised the reality that it is women and girls who will benefit from the provisions in the bill”.

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