Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My questions have been asked already. I want to make one or two remarks. I found the witnesses' comments interesting and sometimes disturbing. I came here to listen and to learn. That is my job at the hearings. There is nothing dark and cynical in this room. We have been at the hearings since Friday, which will continue until tomorrow, to listen to everybody's side of the story and their views. I do not question the witnesses' integrity and it is wrong to question ours. In his last statement Dr. Seán Ó Domhnaill said, "I sincerely hope that they display the integrity expected of them by the people of this nation". I take offence to that statement. Many of the women sitting here are mothers. I have beautiful children and, unfortunately, had five miscarriages. I know what it is like to lose a baby at 23 weeks and what it is like to hold a baby in my hands when it is born naturally. I can only imagine the dismay women go through when they have to go down the line of having an abortion or a termination of pregnancy. I do not think it is something that any woman does lightly.