Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that the figure is growing in terms of the number of GPs signing up. I get a fortnightly report on this matter and I am due a fortnightly report any day now. From my recollection, the last figures that I saw showed that more than 300 GPs had signed up, which is quite a significant increase from where we started. There are some counties that do not still have a GP signed up. I will confirm those counties to the committee and the Deputy.

I am relatively satisfied, as we approach 100 days since we introduced abortion into Ireland - abortion was always here but as we legalised and recognised as a country that it was a reality - I am satisfied that access is in place and that the helpline is working very well. The website called myoptions.ieis working well. The Coombe was the last major maternity hospital to come on stream but it did some work and is providing the service now as well. The general feedback that I am getting from the HSE is that the system is operating as expected. There have not been any particular issues flagged with me in that regard.

I am mandated under the law to lay information before the House after a year of the legislation. That will be the first opportunity for all of us to have a conversation. We also put in the law a mandatory statutory review of the legislation. We heard a lot of people say that there would not be enough GPs or hospitals. The general sense is, thanks to great clinical leadership by the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, and others, and from hospital doctors, that the services are working well and women are accessing the services. A small number of counties do not yet have a GP signed up.