Ms Alison Spillane:

It is interesting that in 2019, without the pandemic, there were 375 women travelling. That decreased almost by half the following year to 294. We do not know. When the figures for 2021 are published in June, they might give us more of an indication of the extent to which unmet need is continuing. We do not know whether that reduction between 2019 and 2020 was entirely due to the pandemic or whether there were improvements in access locally and nationally.

I might flag as well, in terms of the figures we have around unmet need, data provided by an organisation called Women on Web, which provides online access to telemedicine abortion predominantly in jurisdictions where abortion is illegal or heavily restricted. Between 2019 and 2021, they received more than 700 consultations from women in Ireland. That speaks to remaining barriers around access as well.