Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I oppose the amendments for many reasons. At this stage, after some considerable time, we have come through debate which was long and difficult for many people throughout the country, including health professionals. We discussed this issue in the run up to the referendum wherein we referred to a GP-led service. The reason for that was to ensure the highest level of medical expertise was made available at the earliest stage to a woman who might be in a crisis pregnancy or who had concerns about the pregnancy in whatever shape or form. We should remain true to that. We should not run off in different directions at this stage, improving what we said at the time. We did not say it so we cannot afford to uphold it. It would be a retrograde step to do it at this stage. We should stand by what we said when we spoke about it prior to the referendum. We told people what we were going to do and we did it in good faith. While there might be various reasons put forward at a later stage about how it can be improved, they are for a later stage and not for now. We have reached a position where we are introducing regulations in respect of at-home terminations where there were no regulations whatsoever previously. We should stick to our guns and remain as we said we were going to do. I disagree with the amendments.