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

I have a few more brief questions. I have raised the issue of folic acid with him previously. Have anything been done to provide free folic acid supplementation for pregnant women and babies? Ireland has the highest rate of neural tube defects. The incidence here is increasing at greater rate than anywhere else in Europe. There is a cost in terms of money and on families but providing education on this is a simple thing to do. It would not require too much money. I gave the Minister the figures on how cheaply it could be done. A first step would be to provide free folic acid for everybody sitting beside a pregnancy test in a doctor's surgery or in the newsagents. I do not care where they sit once people have access to folic acid.

What is the status of the group dealing with the issue of providing free contraception? Members of the Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution parked the idea of exclusion zone legislation because we wanted the service to be provided as promised from 1 January. We are now heading towards the summer. As the Minister will be aware, families are experiencing negativity in various centres and GPs are under pressure. If we do not get a handle on this soon, GPs will give us doing it. It is not worth it. There are some things that are not worth it in one's life if one is being attacked on one's way to work everyday.