Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

Socioeconomic Context: Dr. Caitriona Henchion and Mr. Niall Behan, Irish Family Planning Association

1:30 pm

Mr. Niall Behan:

There was a HSE audit parallel to this. I should explain what it was. It did not just concern the IFPA, and this is the difficulty I have with some of the input from Senator Mullen. I cannot speak for other pregnancy counselling agencies. What I do know is that the Garda spoke to two of our counsellors about these transcripts, not five, four or nine of them. Quite frankly, the gardaí were embarrassed to be investigating this nonsense. This was a set-up, a sting operation by anti-abortion campaigners trying to lead counsellors to break the law. It was nothing more and nothing less. What we had parallel to the Garda investigation was a HSE audit-----