Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is truly incredible that it is 20 years since the terrible and tragic circumstances of the X case, which led to an enormous public outcry about the Supreme Court judgment and to referendums that concluded that abortion must be allowed where there is a threat to the life of the mother. Twenty years on, after nothing but political cowardice and dithering, we have been led to a situation in which tragic and terrible circumstances have caught up with us and forced us to recognise the abysmal failure and political cowardice of successive Governments.

The late Ms Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old woman, was the victim of that political failure and cowardice. A woman in agony, begging for a termination of her pregnancy in order that she could be treated and possibly have her life saved, was denied such a procedure, according to the reports, because of the law that successive Governments have refused to change despite the will of the people and despite the terrible circumstances of the X case 20 years ago. This is a tragedy resulting from political failure and cowardice. Will the Minister do something about this to ensure that it never happens again, that there is justice for the late Ms Halappanavar's family and that there is an investigation that will establish how this awful tragedy could have happened?

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