James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will answer the questions raised. The law likes to deal with certainties. This point is made time and again. That makes it very difficult to deal particularly with inevitable miscarriage because that diagnosis is not always correct. It nearly always is but not always. That raises serious issues in the law, not insurmountable ones but ones that are beyond the scope of this Bill. In respect of the idea that, as Deputy Naughten referred to, the retired Supreme Court judge, Ms McGuinness, said, try it in the courts, the advice I have is that is not wise and we are not going there. I will take the advice from my Attorney General. I have to bear in mind that if this Bill is referred to the Supreme Court and is struck down on a point of law where I have been given advice and did not take that advice that would be very serious from my point of view. That is not a reasonable thing to do. That is not to disrespect other people's points of view or other people's legal views.

Deputy Daly talked about rape and incest etc. Clearly these are very serious situations but they are beyond the scope of this Bill and we have made it very clear that this Bill aims to clarify the law as requested by the European Court of Human Rights. I will be the first to acknowledge that the European Court of Human Rights did not specify that we need legislation but it was the view of the expert group in its deliberations that legislation and regulation was the best possible approach to take and that is why we have taken that approach. We have been very careful to put as much as possible into the primary legislation, leaving very little for the regulations. Clearly, the areas that have been mentioned are outside the scope of this Bill. Deputy Daly mentioned that there are 1,500 such cases a year. I am pretty sure that is not accurate and I will ask her later where those figures come from. I have no wish to embarrass anybody but it strikes me as an extraordinarily high figure which I do not see anywhere else.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised some issues with the Minister of State, Deputy White, and I will come back to that.

On Deputy Regina Doherty's question, it is not possible for us now to address this serious problem which is a terrible tragedy for people to have to deal with. I, no more than anybody else in this room, do not feel remotely comfortable with the idea that women should have to come home from England with their loved one in a box to hide it from Customs. I know that is not right but I cannot deal with it in this Bill. That is the clear advice I have from the Attorney General.