David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make some quick points. I thank the Minister for his response to the earlier questions. We have covered a lot of ground. It would have been better, as I said, had the independent chair been appointed prior to or in tandem with the roll-out of the first phase. I appreciate the Minister's response but for greater coherence, it would have been much better had the chair been involved from the very start of the process. The Minister explained the rationale but I still believe that would have been better.

I fully understand the Minister's points on the difference between the operation of the Act and policy. This process will clearly look at the operation of the Act. I am comforted by his comments that if there is a relationship or link between some issues that may be deemed to be policy issues which overlap or interact with the delivery of services and the operation of the Act, those issues will be looked at in that context and may well form part of future recommendations. That is an important caveat by the Minister, if I read him correctly, and an appropriate response to those who are listening to this discussion.

Many of the matters raised with us could be addressed quite quickly. We do not need a review for us to see that some of them need to be dealt with. The Minister has responded on safe access zones, on which a Bill is before the Seanad. We need to move on and resolve some of these issues. Other matters such as better or more widespread information on abortion services or counselling supports could be addressed without a review, although the review could be of further benefit.

To me, one of the issues that has come up very strongly is that the telemedicine option has proved very popular and should be maintained. Again, that could be done by the Minister for Health confirming that he will maintain the service. I know that he does not want to pre-empt a review but there are issues that would not necessarily pre-empt a review. We already know that we need better communication. I mean issues have been raised around access for people who cannot speak Irish or English. For example, the HSE's booklet is not available in all of the languages and could have more languages.

All of these issues can be done in tandem with the review. Obviously these are resource issues and I ask for a note to be provided. We often ask for notes but, as the Minister knows, they do not come. It is important that we get a breakdown of the figures that identifies which maternity hospitals provide full and partial services. I also ask for a partial service to be defined because there is a concern that some hospitals do not provide any service or a very limited one. Such information is important in order for us to understand why that happens. As the Minister has said, there are geographical gaps. I would not like to see a situation where there is institutional objection to any of this, which would not be appropriate. I hope that a note can be forwarded to us and I thank the Minister for his time.