Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I might ask a couple of questions on the degree to which we can rely on the attention for and response to a woman in a crisis pregnancy. I want to have clarified the definition of a crisis pregnancy. It could be for a variety of reasons. It could be for health reasons, mental health reasons or stress. Are we satisfied we have a sufficient and adequate response, when a woman presents in a maternity hospital or a clinic, to what may initially appear to be a normal procedure but could suddenly transfer quickly to a serious life-threatening issue? I do not want to name any particular case, but I can think of one which made headlines and I can think of a couple of others that have also hit the headlines. I know outsiders should not comment on these things, but from an outsider's point of view I would like to think that when we legislate, whatever we do we have an adequate and responsive service available that takes into account all aspects of what can and might happen, even though initially it might not look as if that were necessary. What I am trying to ask is whether we have an adequate diagnosis to deal rapidly with that situation.