Catherine Noone has been a member of the Irish Seanad - the Senate or upper house of the Irish Parliament – since 2011. In 2017 she was appointed as the Chair of the Joint Committee on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. This was the cross-party parliamentary committee tasked with making recommendations to the Irish Parliament and Government on whether or not a referendum to repeal Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion should be held and what legislative framework on abortion should be put in place should that referendum be carried. Following an evidence-based deliberative democratic process, in December 2017 the Committee issued its groundbreaking report, recommending fundamental and major reform of Irish law on abortion. Its recommendations were accepted and in 2018 the Irish electorate voted overwhelmingly for repeal. In January 2019 safe and legal abortion care became available across Ireland for the first time in history.