Dr. Eoghan de Faoite:

I begin by saying that, yes, I am a democrat. I believe in the democratic process and I respect it. Two questions were directly raised about the recent international symposium on maternal health care that I was directly involved with and about the declaration that came out of that. Members wanted further elaboration. On 8 September last, a symposium on maternal health was held in Dublin. It was chiefly organised by Professor Eamon O'Dwyer of the National University of Ireland, Galway, who is one of Ireland's most senior obstetricians and has an absolutely impeccable track record of obstetric care. That symposium was addressed by international experts in the field of maternal health care, emergency obstetrics and cancer in pregnancy. We had the world's leading expert in cancer in pregnancy, Professor Frédéric Amant from Belgium, come to address that conference, which was extremely well attended, with over 160 medical practitioners attending.

At the end of that symposium a declaration, which is now commonly known as the Dublin declaration, was released. I will not read it in its entirety but it has three main points. The first point is that abortion is never medically necessary - the direct and intentional termination of the life of the unborn child is not medically necessary. Second, there is a fundamental difference between abortion and emergency treatment or any other medical treatment a woman may need to save her life. Third, the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women. That declaration has been released in the past few weeks and, to date, 400 medical practitioners have signed up in support of that declaration.

Somebody mentioned the dismissive way Dr. Rhona Mahony addressed this declaration earlier in the week. I want to point out that, with regard to two of the signatories of this declaration, one is a former predecessor of Dr. Mahony as master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, and the second is a current professor of obstetrics in that hospital. This only draws the conclusion that there is disagreement on what Dr. Mahony addressed to the committee earlier in the week.

I want to raise a point that was addressed directly to me and the group I am here to represent. I believe the young people I work with in Youth Defence do everything they can to save babies from being killed through abortion, and they do so in a perfectly normal way. I do not think their campaigns are in any way abhorrent-----