Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am watching what is happening here very carefully. It is as anyone could have easily predicted, namely, amendments that are full of bigotry and misunderstanding are being presented to us in long texts - reading some of them is like reading War and Peace- and we then bicker and fight over them, thereby delaying what we are here to do, that is, legislate for the result of a democratic referendum that was decisively won and which provided that women should have choice and access to abortion in this country. That is the issue on which we must focus. People are arguing back and forth over what the Tánaiste did or did not say. That does not matter because the Irish people spoke in favour of the heads of Bill which were published by the Minister for Health. That is what we are trying to deal with and this amendment and many other amendments have absolutely nothing to do with those heads of Bill.

We should not give the amendments much oxygen because they are full of what we heard over and over again during the referendum campaign and what people of my age have been hearing for 35 years. I am sick of it at this stage. I want to move on and I know the women following the progress of this committee want this legislation to move on. We have been waiting to put legislation through for a long time and each day we waste is another day on which women will be forced to leave this country or, in the privacy of their own homes, to put their health at risk by taking pills without supervision. I appeal to everybody to remember the outcome of the referendum. It was decisive and clear and it was the people who spoke, not the Deputies who are having a go at each other in this room, as we have done repeatedly. The people have spoken and we should give effect to the referendum outcome in legislation that can be brought before the Dáil.