Professor Shane Higgins:

I apologise. The reference to emotive misunderstandings did not apply to anyone in this room. In recent weeks, however, terms like "the nuns", "public juridic body" and "private" have being used to try to convey that some shadowy figures are involved. Now that the narrative has moved away from the nuns because the nuns have divested their interest in St. Vincent's, it is not a topic of conversation anymore. Now we are moving to terms like "private practice".

I want to correct that because the public has a right to factual, accurate truths in this debate, and it is a very important debate. I am aware, as I said in my speech, of the hurt that has been caused to women and their families for decades in this country, but I am representing a group of people, clinicians, nurses, midwives, doctors and administrative staff, who dedicate their lives to the provision of all services that are legally permissible within the State. Those are the same clinicians who wrote to the Taoiseach and who advocated on behalf of women's rights during the repeal campaign and many other situations. They are being portrayed as people who will decide what is appropriate or not. They provide everything. The hospital we work in provides everything. It happens to be a voluntary hospital and, as has been stated several times, the hospitals that are not providing a full termination of pregnancy service, for example, are all State-run, State-owned, State-funded hospitals. A week after the introduction of the legislation we were providing the service across all streams of the legislation. I am defending my colleagues.