Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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This generation, as stated earlier, has had no say on what is a fundamental question of equality - equality of opportunity, equality of participation and equality of access to safe medical services. The majority of Irish people alive today were neither born nor eligible to vote on the eighth amendment in 1983. Even the Taoiseach was only four and a half when the eighth amendment was signed into law.

The final decision lies with the electorate and we must facilitate democracy by producing a report that honours the expert evidence heard by both the Citizens' Assembly and the members of this committee.

The electorate is engaged on this issue. Between ten and 12 members of the electorate per day travel outside this country for terminations. These are not imaginary people. They come from counties such as Galway, Tipperary, Kerry and Waterford. They may be married and in their 20s, 30s, 40s or 50s. They may have children, partners, mothers, sisters, aunties and friends and they all have votes. They may not tell anyone of their decision nor ever send an email or write a letter to a local newspaper. They may never report a journalist to the Press Council or the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, for not discussing abortion in a way they deem suitable. They may never send a miraculous medal to politicians, beseeching them to repeal the eighth amendment. That does not mean that those who engage in such activities are more numerous, important to consider or worthy of representation.

I will be supporting the repeal of the amendment simpliciter and encourage other members to do the same. It cannot contain specific grounds because that would give rise to unpredictable complications, as Deputy Clare Daly earlier said. We must vote on that first to take the next steps forward. I trust women and doctors. It is ironic that the volume of evidence given to the committee by doctors, professors, parents and women leaves no choice but to so do. To say that introducing access to legal termination would create a society in which the unborn would be treated as second-class citizens is an insult to women and medics and shows a total lack of appreciation for the status quowhereby the women of Ireland are second-class citizens in their own country and among our European counterparts. Much rhetoric on this issue concerns why women cannot take responsibility for their actions. What about men? Why can men not be responsible? If a man was held responsible for every unprotected or unexpected embrace and had no choice but to sustain a life inside him for nine months and for a lifetime thereafter, we might have different laws, better reproductive health services and a far more considerate and liberal approach from our legislators. Actions have consequences. Actions by men have consequences for women and actions by legislators have consequences for everyone.

Pregnancies come to an end every day - some in the happiest way, some in the saddest, some tragically, some surprisingly and some alone in secret. Senator Gavan referred to the case of Ann Lovett, who died in a grotto in Longford with her infant boy in January 1984, three months after the eighth amendment was signed into law. It was only in 2014 that a letter written by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh to poet Christopher Daybell was revealed. It claimed that Lovett's sad death reflected more on her immaturity than on any lack of Christian charity. How Christian of him. That poor, frightened, innocent teenager died alone in rural Ireland a few miles from where my father was born in Drinan, County Longford. What did the eighth amendment do to protect her? What has it done since for Ms Y, Ms X and all the other misses and near misses we will never hear about? Why should we ever hear about them? Why should we hear about their sex, their shame, their sin and their suffering? Who are we to say that we, as politicians, know best when all the medical and legal experts one could shake a crucifix at have come before us over the past three months, begging us to be compassionate, reasonable and to legislate for repeal?

I have been surprised by the overwhelming interest and support my office has received over recent years, some of which has come from the most unlikely of places. I hope that politicians of all parties and none will receive the same positive and supportive contact from people in the months ahead because I have no doubt that those who oppose repeal will seek to make their numbers appear larger, louder and more important than the silent majority who quietly exist in our constituencies.