Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak on behalf of my party in favour of repeal simpliciter. It is essential that we make the decision as clear cut as possible. Many of the difficulties, as advised by the people from whom we heard, arose from the fact that this issue was dealt with in the Constitution in the first place. We heard evidence from health professionals that the eighth amendment was an impediment in doing their job and offering a full range of health care services to women. For that reason, while I am not sure if a seconder is required, we will certainly second the amendment in favour of repeal simpliciter. We had discussions about the numbers of Irish women who travelled to England and I came to the conclusion that it was not possible to determine the numbers and that neither was it possible, therefore, to determine the actual rate of abortion for this country. On the basis of the information given to us by health professionals and persons who are very eminent in their field, including legal professionals, the overwhelming evidence is that repeal simpliciteris what we should be recommending as a committee.