Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

That is a very important point. As we set out, the policy is therefore to provide for safe access zones to be available in the vicinity of all potential providers of these services. That makes it quite a challenging exercise. There are 3,500 GPs and 19 hospitals with maternity services. We remain committed to that. The Deputy is right that it would be counterproductive to restrict the provision of safe access zones to areas where the service was being provided, because that will inadvertently draw attention to the provision of these services in particular sites.

Having said that, in operational terms, we need a full reset of information-gathering mechanisms within the health service. These should feed across to An Garda Síochána as appropriate so that it can respond to particular sites where issues are arising or where the safety, dignity and privacy of service users are being compromised by inappropriate protests. That is a careful balancing act.

In the North of Ireland, they have a facility whereby a health service provider can apply for a safe access zone. In a sense, by doing that and by applying for such a thing, they are effectively declaring that they are providing the service. That is not consistent with the policy approach here. However, there is a real trade-off between the ability to manage and implement the policy and the need to protect the privacy and dignity of the service providers and the service users.