Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for giving their time to come in to advise us in our important task regarding legislating to do what the people of Ireland asked us to do in May.

On the delivering service by January, I am concerned that this may not be possible. There is almost an assumption that these are new women who did not exist before, that the ten or 12 each day who will land out of the sky are additional and have never approached a GPs surgery. I remember evidence to the committee said that most of the women are already attending their GPs for contraception, cervical smears and so on, so they are pre-existing patients. That does not seem to have entered the conversation. I know it is a new service, but these women already exist.

There has been comment about the interaction between the GP and secondary care. However, maternity care is universal in this country. My understanding is that relationship between the GP and the secondary care provider is already established. There was a conversation earlier about how we would do this. Is communication between the two deficient? Will the GPs and the secondary care providers outline the problems we might encounter?

If we had 12 cases of anything else a day which had to go abroad or source illegal medication online, it would be a national scandal and a bundle of money would be liberated for it immediately. If the men of Ireland had to travel on a Ryanair flight they would be up in arms and out roaring and shouting outside the Dáil. This is something we have never provided in this country but it is not a novel provision. It is essential medicine. The committee heard that at length and we heart the World Health Organization's stance on it. Despite recent mutterings about overspends in health, I believe this is a separate bundle. It is long over due to the women of Ireland. I advise whoever writes the cheque to just do so.

The three-day wait was discussed at length at the committee. Some of those present here have a problem with it from the perspective of trusting women. I voted for it at committee but it is almost completely at odds with my belief that one would not trust a woman to make her discussion. Nevertheless, we have seen evidence that it does not have any negative effect.