Ms Abigail Rooney:

This is not a method of treating suicide. She was suicidal because she was raped and became pregnant from it and our country was going to force her to carry that foetus to term. That is why she was suicidal.

Indeed, in response to Senator Bacik, this will not meet the needs of most Irish women but, unfortunately, we are constrained by our Constitution. I would love to have another debate about the broader legislative interpretation or, indeed, a referendum.

The decriminalisation of women and physicians does need to take place. We cannot criminalise women for this. They are going to the United Kingdom anyway. If the Oireachtas really wants to criminalise women, why is it not stopping them from going to the United Kingdom? It knows this is going to happen. The Oireachtas knows that women are going to go and that deep down it is the wrong thing to do. Women should be able to make that decision.

On the using of a case as a tragedy-----