Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

It is very appropriate the House is having this debate on International Women's Day. It seems women have always been the victims in cases such as this where groups of people have been hurt by others. I will not give a litany of those people. This report is not just about a man but also about an ethos, a culture and an organisation that allowed things to happen because there was such deference shown towards a profession and people could not envisage raising their hands and saying, "Hold on a minute, I think you are doing something wrong and we should take a look at this". Deputy English asked what this man was if he was not an evil or bad man. He would be clinically defined as a sociopath, a person who does awful deeds with no conscience. That describes what he did.

I would like to discuss what it feels like to be in the last stages of pregnancy. Despite the glorious aura around pregnancy and childbirth, 97% of women have a great fear of pregnancy and childbirth. It is a worrying time in one's life during which one is most vulnerable because an event is about to happen over which one has no control. Others have complete control.

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