Dr. Peter Boylan:

The legislation is incredibly restrictive by international standards. Any suggestion this is a liberal legislative programme needs to be utterly rejected. Comparisons with the United Kingdom or any other country in Europe - in fact, any other country apart from Malta - are disingenuous and false. This is incredibly restrictive which everybody needs to recognise. I have a fundamental problem with people abrogating the term "pro-life" to themselves and trying to paint me into a corner where I am held up as not being pro-life. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I have spent my entire professional career trying to care for and save lives, I have a fundamental personal objection to this.

Deputy Terence Flanagan asked about clarity regarding the law. This will clarify things for us as physicians practising on a daily basis. At the moment we are left to interpret the Constitution in our daily jobs. It does not happen very often, but it does happen when there is a risk to the life of the mother. We cannot be expected to interpret the Constitution; we are not constitutional lawyers. We are dependent on the members of the committee, the legislators, to do their job, for which they are paid, and legislate. It has taken a long time and I applaud the Government for initiating the process and, at last, legislating and standing up and doing what is required to protect the lives of mothers and give us the certainty that we can practise as we need to do.

An obstetrician feeling uncomfortable can invoke the conscientious objection clause. That is not an issue. Questions were asked about whether we would terminate a single twin if the mother asked for it. No, let us not go there, as that is getting into silly territory.

Senator Paul Bradford made reference to the health of the mother. This is about the life of the mother; not about her health. We are concerned that if a woman is not allowed to have a termination of pregnancy, she will die, not that she will be unhealthy. This is about death. Stop introducing the term "health" because it is irrelevant.

Ireland is not a chilling place. It is very good, but it is not because of the facilities available or anything else; it is in spite of what Dr. Coulter-Smith has very eloquently and repeatedly drawn attention to in terms of deficiencies in services.

I was asked if I had ever been unable to intervene because of the current legal situation, to carry out a termination of pregnancy and the woman had died. I have not, but I have personal, inside information and knowledge from the west of a woman who died last year because the doctors were unable to terminate the pregnancy because of the law.