Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

General Scheme of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services (Safe Access Zones)) Bill 2022: Department of Health (Resumed)

Ms Caitriona Mason:

No. As it is currently drafted, you cannot. The Garda submission raised whether there should be temporal and geographical limits. As counsel was not certain that an indefinite warning would hold up, we have asked them to consider that and to revert. From a policy perspective, initially the intention was the warning would be indefinite and that there would be no temporal or geographical limits on it to cut off the scenario outlined by the Deputy at the start of his contribution.