Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Shortall and Cullinane for the proposal. We are trying to find a balance here. We want some level of assessment and the question is where we set the bar. In other jurisdictions, the bar is set even higher than what we are proposing, which is that they are "satisfied". The providers are seeking to lower the bar to "aware" but I think that is too low. We must remember that we will have providers who intending parents go to off their own bat. There will be cases where there is no State involvement so we have to have some sort of protection in place. I know that the providers want "aware". That is their proposal but I am not inclined to accept that. As Deputy Cullinane said, the "satisfied" bar is achieved via a self-declaration, where at least there is some material to be looked at. It requires the intending parents to answer some questions and at least then there is a requirement on the provider to look through those. It does not require Garda vetting. That is not the point.

Both Deputies have asked the fair question as to what "satisfied" means. Legally, how can the clinics say they have met their legal obligations under the act? Perhaps what we should do is get a clarifying note on "satisfied" because it is less onerous than some of the providers might think in the context of concerns about Garda vetting and so on. I do not think we should move to just "aware" because it places a pretty passive obligation on the provider rather than an active obligation to at least look at it. I am not going to accept the amendments but we can discuss this further and what might work is a clarifying note as to how the bar of "satisfied" is met.