Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned about the intent behind some of these proposals. Amendment No. 45, in particular, is effectively proposing the provision of directive counselling for women. That is an important point to make. The Minister said he will bring forward an amendment on Report Stage to deal with some of the concerns reflected in the proposals by Deputies Billy Kelleher and Denis Naughten. I certainly hope that amendment will not impose any type of enforced directive counselling on women. I assume that will not be the case, but amendment No. 45 makes an allusion to directive counselling and could well be construed to justify putting pressure on women. That would be utterly unacceptable.