Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the statement that the Minister made this morning that we do not need to wait until the end of the review to act on issues that impact on women regarding access and services. A number of speakers have pointed out the gaps and difficulties in service provision. It has been pointed out to us that meetings with the HSE and hospitals were happening or began to happen but then there was a problem in terms of Covid. Straightaway I was struck by the fact that most of us live our lives through Zoom now so was it not possible for hold the meetings using Zoom? Was there no other way to follow through on those meetings? Can these meetings resume? It is important that we find out what problems face the hospitals but also the women who avail of these services.

Another area is fatal foetal abnormalities. Again, the issue has caused huge pain and grief for women across the country. Some women have said that they have been told that the anomaly has been diagnosed as not fatal enough and does not qualify for fatal foetal abnormality. We have seen what the restrictive criteria of the law in the hands of medical professions in the past has done in Ireland and that was one of the catalysts for the repeal movement. Are there plans to review the fatal foetal abnormality sections and allow greater clinical freedom for medical professionals? Does the issue come under the review that we are talking about or is it separate?

I am conscious that there are gaps in services and it is clear that these are not being delivered for women in the way that we thought it would as legislators. What else can we do outside of this? The review should not stymie or stop the work of the Oireachtas and the Minister in terms of filling the clear gaps in services. What plans has the Minister for moving forward, aside from the review on which we are focussing today?