Ms Marie O'Shea:

On the protests, there is a very comprehensive paper published by a professor in Maynooth University on the effects of protests and their frequencies, so they are taking place. I spoke directly to two consultants who referred to protests taking place outside their hospitals and how they felt they were inappropriate. They felt the protests were particularly inappropriate in terms people who were coming out of that hospital having had miscarriages and seeing white coffins on the ground and people standing outside a healthcare facility referring to death, basically, when they went through circumstances where their own pregnancy had ended. I spoke to a consultant who told me it was only upon his appointment as a second consultant that the consultant in the hospital felt they could provide the service, and that had been influenced by protesting at local level. They were still in receipt of letters they found distressing but they have carried on because they believe they are doing the correct thing.

GPs I spoke to referred to having protests outside their clinics. They wondered about the effect that was having on all patients coming into the clinic, not just those seeking termination of pregnancy. They wondered whether people who worked in the clinic had voted against repeal and how they felt. Were they being looked at in some way and feeling perhaps compromised by that? Another GP in a rural area wondered whether the protesters knew where she lived. She was worried they would possibly present to her house. I heard many accounts directly of people worrying about protesting. Certainly, it seems to have an impact on those particular providers. I tried to contact non-providers during the study but it was very difficult to do that. We tried by GP survey to contact them but the response was not huge.