Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some research has been done on adoption. The biggest contributor to the fall in adoption rates was when the State introduced payments to women who were initially called unmarried mothers that became payments which allowed people to parent alone so that women did not have to continue with a pregnancy and then give their children up, but had the right to raise their own children and had the economic basis to do so. The evidence would support that view. I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. One of the excellent parts of today's discussion has been the highlighting of the rogue agencies that are out there and the imperative on us as legislators to deal with that. It relates to the point made by Niall Behan earlier than they are the ones that are not regulated.

I do not know how to react to this presentation because I am torn, on the one hand, by trying to get the information out there that despite criminalisation, there are State-provided services for people with crisis pregnancies before and after an abortion which women in Ireland might need tonight. That is not well known so that is a message we need to get out. However, on the other hand, is it not an indication of our utter sickening and depressing hypocrisy that we dance around this issue, provide State services, give a constitutional right to access a service in another state, even send the leaflets over and look after women when they come back, but we have no abortion in Ireland? That is demoralising. The witnesses are the ones who are implementing that farce.

I do not know if they can comment on it. I am trying to address the Regulation of Information (Services Outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Act and the difficulties it causes. We have had a lot of testimony about the break in the continuum of care. Have the HSE's service providers or the agencies it funds highlighted any particular problems? I am thinking of the comments made by the IFPA, in particular, about deaf women. Somebody might be given information by a service but how does a deaf person ring a clinic in England and make the appointment? Is that not a double discriminator? How would that be addressed? What are the problems in terms of that legislation? Other contributors have said contraceptive prevalence is actually the key determinant of lowering abortion rates. Deputy O'Connell made a point earlier about universal access to contraception. Is that something the HSE has done research on or costed? It would be of huge benefit to people.