Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Noone for her work in chairing our meetings over the past couple of weeks. I also thank my fellow committee members for giving me the space to listen, understand and engage in the work of this committee. There was good mutual respect among all who engaged in this committee. I have taken a lot of information on board. Our Oireachtas colleagues need to understand what was discussed at this committee. A lot of good information and expert opinion was put before us. Some people have said this opinion was biased but it was not. The heads of the Rotunda Hospital and Holles Street hospital came before the committee to present the facts as they are. I approached the work of this committee in the same way as I would approach the work of all other committees. I came to listen, learn and understand and to assist the committee in gathering all of the information we require.

I found Deputy Daly's comments about the decriminalisation of abortion interesting. I was not aware of the 14 year prison sentence in regard to the abortion pill. Decriminalisation is a huge issue for me. Deputy Kelleher spoke earlier about young people acquiring abortion pills when they have nobody to turn to. That is shocking. I do not think anybody should feel alone and have nobody to turn to such that they have to order abortion pills online and also be fearful that if caught with these pills they face a prison sentence. We have a duty of care to ensure this issue is addressed.

In regard to fatal foetal abnormality, this generally arises from a planned pregnancy. Regardless of whether it is a first, second, third or fourth child, the child is wanted and it is only when the parent or parents find out on review of a scan that all is not going according to plan that they have to make a choice. We heard from one witness that he was a broken man for nine years in terms of his trips to and from Belfast. That session had a huge impact on me. We all found it very moving. I would not want to find myself in that position and I would not want to be responsible for anybody else being in that position. This man and his wife were broken and he did not talk to anybody about his experience for a long time. It was shocking to listen to his story. There are many men who have been in this position.

This committee played a huge role in listening but I would have liked if more people had come before us. That is no reflection on the Chairman, the clerk or anybody else. I agree with Senator Mullen that the vote was premature. It is unfortunate that more groups did not appear before the committee. I had a willingness to listen to all sides. I do not want to label any group because we heard from experts who were not to be labelled. It is unfortunate that we did not hear all viewpoints.

While they might have submitted letters and everything else, it is not possible to beat face-to-face engagement. It is not possible to beat good robust debates with questioning and everything else because people wanted to tease it out for the general public.

It was also an incredibly tough committee and I found myself challenged. I would nearly have sneaked away there without having spoken. It is very difficult because it was a really emotive debate. We have a duty of care to the general public because it will go to a referendum. Three generations have not had an opportunity to vote on it. I believe in democracy. It is not me who will decide because I have only one vote at the end of the day. The wording will be incredibly important.

Irrespective of one's side, it is all down to a value system. I have deep core values and I respect everybody with their own value system. Ireland is not the society it once was and we can respect each other for their value system. That is why the wording is important, but everybody needs to get out and vote to have their say. Everybody needs to be informed as to what they are voting on. The challenge next week is how we lay it before the Oireachtas and how we present it to Government to come back with a wording to us on it.

I cannot say I enjoyed it. I was challenged by this committee. I would like to think that our colleagues working down here - Senators and all - would educate themselves on what was discussed in the last number of weeks. Irrespective of what comes out of next week's voting system, at the end of the day respect has to be shown to one and all because this debate is only starting and not finishing. We have to be very sure as to how we, as legislators, present it to the general public. We owe the people an opportunity to vote on it.