Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not a member of this committee, but I am stepping in for Deputy Gino Kenny. Thank you for letting me in, Chairman. I want to pick up on the last point first. In January, it will be four years since the legislation to allow women to procure abortion in Ireland was enacted. Straight away, when it was passed in 2019, there were pickets and protests outside GP surgeries and doctors' clinics.

The legislation was passed in the spirit of many promises that were given, some of which are still being enacted such as the provision of free contraception and looking at free sex education in schools so that as a whole package, the need for intervention in crisis pregnancy will be undermined but crisis pregnancy will also be able to be dealt with.

Four years is a long time to have something that was shadowed in the legislation, that is, the provision of safe access zones, not even being close to being passed yet. This has been said by many Deputies and Senators but the question of urgency cannot be overemphasised. This will not be passed before January 2023. I am quite sure of that from hearing what the witnesses have said, which means that four years on, we do not have safe access zones. That is very worrying. To repeat what has been said, this has a chill effect on the provision of services. We have seen this particularly in parts of the west and north-west of Ireland. We hear accounts of GPs pulling out of delivering the service or being on the list of those willing to deliver because of threats of intimidation and fear. There was an account of a GP in the west of Ireland whose home was actually threatened. This GP lived near work and was providing the services. Threats were made all the time to this person and their family when going to and coming from school and carrying out normal day-to-day things like shopping. It is really important that a strong signal is sent out that there is an urgency about the legislation. There is a proposal of some kind of public awareness campaign about the legislation. Perhaps Mr. O'Connor could talk a little bit about that. I would emphasise that issue of urgency and trying to get a time from the Department as to when we will see this through.

There is the question of the right of confidentiality for women who will be seen by protestors going in and out. Many of them would be in abusive relationships, for example, so they need to keep their own affairs private. This is all the time under threat when we do not have these safe access zones. The question of this providing a chill effect to the provision of services is not just something that happens in Ireland. The World Health Organization recognises this and has done research on it. I want to really emphasise that.

One thing I want to ask, which others have also asked about, is the question of industrial relations activity. Mr. O'Connor can go back over the argument again that it is not perceived to be under that particular heading where industrial relations activity is prohibited. Sometimes, however, industrial relations activity is unofficial and would, therefore, be perceived by an employer as being illegal. We need to be careful about this. It would still be industrial relations activity albeit unofficial and seen as illegal, which may then fall foul of this legislation. Therefore, we should go back to having the specific clause that excludes any kind of strike or protest activity by cleaners, doctors, nurses or health workers of any sort inside an abortion care setting. We will be proposing that and we will try to amend the legislation accordingly. I would love to see it coming from the Department, however.

I am kind of baffled as to why the Department did not go along with the Bill that was going through the Seanad. We would have had this much earlier had we co-operated with the Bill going through the Seanad and looked at maybe amending, changing or adding to it rather than taking this length of time.

I am concerned, as are others, about the definition of "curtilage" and whether a car park or playground nearby or whatever is included in the definition. I am also concerned about how protests will be controlled. It is true that protests of this nature do not have to be in your face or all over people shouting and roaring at them. It can be carrying an abusive or disgraceful symbol or whatever, as frequently happened outside the gates of the Dáil during the course of the debate around the eighth amendment. We need to get much more clarity on what we are talking about here. I have one or two more questions but I will come back to Dr. O'Connor on those.