Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

It is important that we remember that the backdrop to the Bill we are discussing is the constitutional protection of the life of the mother and the unborn in Article 40.3.3°. It is also the background to the X case, which refers to the real and substantial risk to the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother, which can only be averted by a termination. We are talking about a situation in which there will be very strict and onerous access procedures in the Bill.

I have some brief questions for the medical witnesses. Are they happy that there is now legal clarity for medical practice as a result of the Bill? Are they satisfied that there is protection for medical and nursing personnel involved in these areas? Are they satisfied that the question of adequate access to terminations where they are medically necessary, which was referred to specifically in the European case, is provided for in the heads of the Bill?