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

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy White, to the final session and thank Deputy Buttimer for chairing the committee. I thank all the various witnesses who presented over the past three days. I thank each and every member of the committee and other Members of the Oireachtas who contributed. I also thank the committee secretariat for its excellent work.

The process has been ongoing for quite some time. We have debated the issue on three occasions in the Dáil Chamber, two to discuss the Bills published by Deputy Clare Daly and one to discuss the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion. The committee held a hearing that lasted three days in January and we have had another three days now. With so much discussion and all of the presentations, it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees, to some extent. Therefore, it is important to restate the parameters within which the legislation is being brought forward. They are restrictive. Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution protects the life of the woman and the unborn. The X case concerns a real and substantial threat to the life as distinct from the health of the mother. In a situation where the threat to a woman's life can only be averted by termination, the woman will have the final say.

The past three days have been very helpful and necessary. We have heard varying degrees of views right across the spectrum, which are sincerely held views that were well thought out and put forward. The Minister and his Department will have to examine, give further consideration to and allow discussion on the many areas that have been highlighted, such as an appropriate location, the very significant criminal sanction in the Bill, the timeframe for review, consent regarding people who are under age, particularly children, monitoring of the Bill and various other areas that were highlighted over the course of the hearings.

These three days were helpful and necessary. I look forward to the completion of the committee's report and the presentation of that report to the Department, as the Chairman stated, by the 30th of this month, and the Minister publishing the Bill at an early date.