Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, as many other speakers have, I compliment the Chairman on the work she has done and the manner in which she carried out a very difficult task. I express my thanks to the many expert witnesses who have come in and given us testimony and expert evidence. A key point that I hope the public understands is that we were not here to rehearse the Citizens' Assembly; we were here to look at its recommendations and move the process on. Almost all the committee members have approached that in a very honest and principled way.

I am conscious not to rehearse what many people have said. I want to reflect a little. One would need to be at least 52 years of age to have voted in 1983 and the bad news is that I am that old. I remember that referendum and it is important to reflect back on that troubled time. I was not long back from England and those of us who campaigned against that amendment were completely ostracised. Those living in a rural area, as I did at that time, found that neighbours stopped talking to us. People chased and confronted us. Debate was stifled entirely by an autocratic and frankly quite evil Catholic Church at that time. I remember my religion teacher saying to me, "We are taking our last stand on this. We're going to nail this down." Boy, did they do that.

In the previous year, 1982, there was a lovely girl in my school bus, who was probably not more than 14, and she just disappeared. There were all sorts of rumours, but we never saw her again. We gathered she was pregnant; there was some suggestion it could have been incest. However, we just never saw her again because that was what happened back then. Not in the 1950s but in the 1980s we made them disappear. Our society made them disappear. When I moved to Limerick at the end of 1983, I lived beside the Good Shepherd convent along with a group of students aged 17 and 18. One can imagine what we might get up to. Right beside us, women were imprisoned. They could probably hear us coming in at night in all sorts of states and they were imprisoned - not in the 1950s but in the 1980s.

Unfortunately there are people who still want to take us back to those times. While not wanting to be party-political about this, we should acknowledge that legislators through the years have consistently let women down. That is why it is such a privilege to have an opportunity here to do something worthwhile and we must do it. That does not mean we have to agree on everything and I fully respect people with different opinions. However, the evidence is clear and it is not evidence from pro-choice cheerleaders. This came from the head of the Rotunda Hospital and the head of the National Maternity Hospital, people we trust to look after our mothers and babies - I certainly trust them anyway. I do not think they are part of some conspiracy to foist abortion on the country. They are honourable people who are saying, "We have a problem here and we're asking for your help. We're asking you to remove this awful amendment." It should never have been put into our Constitution. We need to unite around this if we can.

Sinn Féin's position is clear. We believe in a simple and straight repeal. I compliment Deputy Kelleher, who summed up the reasons for that extremely well. I hope we can all agree on that. More important, if we do our work properly and move forward on the issue, it is really important that when the referendum comes we put our party political badges aside to a degree and unite where we can to make this country a better and safer place for women and to finally put an end to a very dark episode in our country's history.

Just a few months after the 1983 referendum was passed, an unfortunate girl died in a grotto in Granard with her son. I lived in that part of the world - I used to travel back from college - and all one would hear at the time was "Well, we don't want to talk about that". We need to put an end to this awful dark and backward attitude of hiding things away and not trusting women. That is the big issue that divides us. Most people on this committee are prepared to trust women. By God, should we not be able to do that? If we cannot do that, is something not fundamentally wrong? I am saying simply that we should trust women, trust medical professionals and unite to repeal this awful amendment and let us move forward together.