Dr. Matthew Sadlier:

On conscientious objection, if legislation is passed it is meaningful only if it has sufficient resources and mechanisms to action what it contains. It is very much the responsibility of employers to have a system in place which includes professionals who do not have a conscientious objection, thus protecting those who do from engaging in practices with which they have a difficulty.

With regard to the time limit, 14 days seems to be quite long given that a pregnancy is a time-limited entity. Although provision is made for emergency cases it would be expected that most cases are urgent as opposed to routine. We do not have an opinion on an alternative specific number of days.

Professor Murphy dealt with the question on various services in various hospitals. Services are divided among various sites with one hospital providing a specialty to another so a network of referral processes and cover between individual sites will be required.