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

I do not want to prolong the discussion, except to say that the Minister's response to the point that I and Deputy Seamus Healy have raised is inadequate. The Supreme Court felt it important enough to put in this important qualification in terms of what represents a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman. They felt it was necessary to clarify that such risk must not be inevitable or immediate. That, as the Minister will be aware, is a very important qualification and really speaks to the uncertainty about what point one decides that a woman's life is really under threat. This qualification, put in by the Supreme Court, is erring on the side of caution in relation to a woman's life and it is right and proper that it should do so. In this section and throughout the Bill, this is a significant inadequacy in the safeguards for a woman's life. The Minister might not accept the amendments now but I would urge him to consider what we have said. We will be returning to this in the other sections and on Report Stage.