Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I repeat my request to the Leader that we have a debate on the draft heads of the legislation on abortion produced by the Government. The other House should debate it also.

The more I read the heads of this Bill the more I feel this is a really dark day. The Government is proposing something dangerous and destructive. I am very disappointed that our Taoiseach has led us to this point. His advisers and some of his Ministers have cooked up an unworthy political compromise on a life and death issue. The lines coming from the Government about this being restrictive and life-saving and necessary to implement a law that is already there are simply not true. This is about opening the door to abortion and not just by a chink. Under pressure, particularly from the Labour Party, the Taoiseach and his Government have ignored the tide of medical evidence against legislating on the grounds of suicide, not to mention the deep concerns expressed by more than 100 psychiatrists who appear to represent the overwhelming majority of their profession. It appears the hearings held by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children last January were just a charade not because of what was said at them which decisively rejected the notion of abortion as evidence-based treatment for suicide-----