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

I did not make my remarks lightly. I made them having dealt with individual cases and not just sparsely but in recent times. All of the medical attention was available but it was not enough to help people determine when was the right time to intervene. It is critical, regardless of whatever intervention taken place, that recognition is given to the fact that both the mother and the baby are at risk at the same time. I mean an intervention, not necessarily to terminate the life of either. The time it takes to provide the medical assistance that is required can range between half an hour and two hours. It is important for me to emphasise that lives can be lost in that period.