Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Healy for tabling these amendments. He is right when he says sympathy does not go far enough. If we cannot do something about it now, I look forward to working with colleagues to ensure we address it in the future. This situation cannot continue to prevail. It is harrowing to hear the testimony of women and their husbands or partners who speak of bringing their dead babies home in the boot of the car, or waiting for DHL to deliver their babies' ashes. These are the real lives of people. It is incumbent on us to give them more than sympathy. We need to offer practical solutions that will allow them to address the plight they find themselves in.

Some people have come to me with very personal stories of inevitable miscarriage. They have told me about being treated with medication and sent home, only for that medication to fail to work. They may have been given some sort of intervention that did not work either. Some women have to wait for protracted periods of time - up to five or six weeks - while they wait for the inevitable miscarriage of their baby. Why are we not giving greater certainty to women who find themselves in the awfully traumatic circumstances of losing a baby? There is no need to prolong something that is sadly going to end. I do not understand why we are not seeking to clarify that for women. I have personal experience of this. One is sent home from hospital with medication, and it does not work. One is sent for a procedure, and it does not work. One loses one's baby at the end of it anyway. I do not understand why we cannot bring some solace to people who are really suffering as a result of this legal quagmire.