Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

I am quite happy to address that. What the Deputy is referring to is the operation in which women who were not pregnant attended pregnancy counselling services and, without either the knowledge or permission of the counsellors, recorded those consultations, which I find very unethical. From all of that, they isolated a few phrases in which counsellors had been led into giving specific answers and took them completely out of the context of an otherwise very professional consultation. As the Deputy said, this has been investigated by the HSE and a file was sent to the DPP and there has been no evidence of wrongdoing found. I do not know that one can say we did anything wrong in this situation. Furthermore, it is the restrictive criminal laws that are making women afraid to disclose their medical history when they go to hospitals. It is the restrictive criminal laws that mean women are looking for information about websites when they come to see counsellors. It is those restrictive laws we need to change.