Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To take Deputy Grealish's point, this goes back to choice. Different women and their partners will make different decisions in different cases. The tragedy in Ireland at present is that the State will support and protect those who make one choice and send those who make the other to Liverpool. That is what we are trying to end here. As Minister, I brought forward the general scheme in March that tried to define this as "shortly". That was clearly my preference. The legal and medical advice on the 28-day period is very clear to me. I am therefore not taking this decision lightly but, rather, on the advice of legal and medical minds that I highly respect.

I get the point as to whether it is better just to put this in clinical guidelines and I, too, have asked these questions. The law of the land will always trump clinical guidelines, and I have no doubt but that people will challenge this legislation or endeavour to do so. If "shortly after" is a vague term, I worry about family division on issues and about people in court deciding to define "shortly after". Nothing in clinical guidelines will prevent this, so we must provide the legal clarity in which medics anchor their guidelines. I was asked by them to do so, and that is what we are trying to do. We have provided for maximum flexibility for clinicians here, as is appropriate. We are not saying it must be within 28 days; rather, it is a matter of it being in their reasonable opinion, formed in good faith, that it is within 28 days. We need to remember - and I appreciate Deputy Clare Daly's comments in this regard - that this is about fatal foetal abnormalities, not foetal abnormalities. For it not to be about foetal abnormalities, there must be reference to a period of time. That is what I am endeavouring to do here. While I am sure I get many things wrong, this is a proposal on which I come to the committee with a very strong basis of both legal and medical opinion. Because the matter of fatal foetal abnormalities is such a sensitive one for Deputy Donnelly, me and everyone else on this committee, we all want to get it right. I am therefore absolutely happy and would very much welcome the chance to engage with Deputy Donnelly and others on this between now and Report Stage. I am absolutely happy to be proved wrong on this, but my very strong view is that the phrase "shortly after" will provide far too much grey area and therefore, potentially, far too much pain. That is where we are coming from in this regard. If the phrase "shortly after" would have worked, I would not have amended the general scheme I published in March.