Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

I do not have anything new to add to what has been said. It is very hard to talk about this. It is so horrific. It is clearly another example of men trying to control women's bodies. We have a male-dominated Parliament doing little about this, just as it failed to legislate for the 1992 Supreme Court judgment in the X case, which ruled that abortion is legal in Ireland where a woman's life is at risk, including through the threat of suicide. This is a moral attitude driven by a warped religious thinking and has led to bad things happening to good people.

We need a temporary lifting of the statute bar to enable women to seek redress through the courts. Justice demands that the statute of limitations be set aside for at least one year. We need to set up an independent commission of inquiry that is not controlled by vested interests and the access to the health benefits and entitlements promised by the Government in 2003, many of which were subsequently withdrawn or never granted, to be placed on a statutory basis. Fairness is all people ask and accountability, transparency and acknowledgement would go a long way.

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