John Dolan (Independent)
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I will not wear this out for the rest of the evening but the cultural milieu that people live in and the tolerance for one thing or another influences choice. That is one thing. The other thing is when that woman looks around her and sees there are no services or that they are scattered and poor, it is a real influencer of choice. At present, we are dealing in Ireland with women who gave up their children. Did they give them up or did they have no choice? We have to look at choice in the context in which it takes place. Is it really a choice? That brings me back to this difficult issue about the dominant culture. Dare I ask, what is the fashion? Who will knock on that woman's door, say they are there for her and that there is a health service, social service or education service available? Who is there for them? That is part of being able to cleanly exercise choice. That is still something that needs to more strongly come into this discussion. We will not solve it this evening but it is a really important practical element of it.