Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the panel for their excellent presentations.

Senator Healy Eames did not check with me but Labour Women is actually affiliated to the National Women's Council of Ireland and I have personally had many dealings with it. Membership is usually confined to organisations affiliated to it and not individuals. I have attended some of its meetings and annual general meetings and I have found the council to be fairly representative of groups. I think Senator Healy Eames's criticism was unfair.

I thank the groups for expressing very clearly the needs of the women who travel every year for an abortion. I agree with Senator Healy Eames that the voices of the women who travel have been absent from these hearings.