Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we should discuss the issue in the House. It should be discussed in a reasoned and informed way. I hope I did not give the Deputy the impression that the report will not be published. It is simply the case that the Government must make a formal decision to publish the report. I accept that the debate must be fully informed. We must examine the group’s recommendations. The group was set up to examine the various options that could be progressed and to view the issue in its totality and complexities. The discussion we will have will be based on the report. The report has just been submitted and the Government must consider where we go with it.

The timeline is that there is a requirement to make a report to the Council of Europe by the end of the month. We will comply with the requirement. What further steps will be taken, how the issue will be progressed and how we will get the legal clarity we must have on the issue will be based on what is in the report. I would envisage that we will have a discussion in the House, if necessary in the Joint Committee on Health and Children. The issue is currently being discussed by the general public in any event. The discussion must be a reasoned, reasonable, dignified one and it must be focused on what it is we need to do to bring legal clarity to sets of circumstances that have been outstanding for a long period that are very real. Although we will not know the full details until the investigation has been completed, we have heard what Savita’s husband said yesterday and as legislators we have a duty and responsibility to respond, act and deal with the issue.

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