Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

I thank the Deputy very much. I can assure the committee of the urgency with which the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnolly, regards this. He has prioritised it in the autumn schedule. The Deputy is right; it was something initially intended and envisaged to be encompassed within the 2018 legislation. It ran into complexity and there was an imperative to progress that Bill with a view to establishing the services. The chill effect is something about which we are deeply conscious. It is a delicate time in the roll-out of new services, in a sense, and the Deputy referred to issues about the geographical distribution of services. The particular chill effect that can occur in maybe a rural setting is something about which we are very conscious. It is part of the intention of the Bill to create a safe environment in which services can be delivered.

The Deputy is so right about people's privacy and dignity. It can be a very difficult and vulnerable time in people's lives when they need to access medical services. It is so vitally important for their dignity that their privacy and safety is protected in accessing those services.

We are so immersed in the drafting that we have not thought yet about a public awareness campaign but it is actually a very important thing that we will do. We will engage now with colleagues who can help us in that regard. We have some excellent colleagues in the women's health division in our press and communications section so we will take that on board. I thank the Deputy.

On confidentiality, one of the excellent policy decisions made by the Dáil in 2018 was the incorporation of these services as part of an integrated set of primary care, GP and hospital services. We do not have the American-style abortion clinic, as such, as a real focal point. The purpose of any visit by any private individual to a health facility cannot be known. There is confidentiality. As the Deputy said, however, absolutely, we do not want people accessing those legally provided health services feeling any discomfort or distress arising from protests in the vicinity of the services.

Our policy intent is clear on industrial relations activity. We absolutely do not seek to undermine industrial relations activity. I take the Deputy's point that it is not always official and can be spontaneous and unofficial. We will absolutely work to ensure that all types of industrial relations activity by any workers are not encompassed or undermined in any part of the country. We are looking at whether that might be a specific clause or exemption, which might be necessary, or else the prohibited behaviours within the zone will be refined to a place where they can clearly not be presumed to encompass industrial activity. I hear that the Deputy's advice is to get specific on an exemption in relation to it, however.

We can absolutely see such similarity with the Private Members' Bill in many ways. We are deeply grateful to Senator Gavan and all the Senators and Deputies who contributed to that. Members will see it is evident that our current scheme builds on their work in the area in many respects. However, it is acknowledged that legislating the area is complex and challenging from the perspective of balancing competing constitutional rights. All the work we are doing now is work that is always necessary with any legislative vehicle. That Private Members' Bill helped us greatly and we have built on it in the work we are doing now.