Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy should understand that heads of the Bill approved by the Government last week will be sent to the Oireachtas health committee for hearings to be conducted under the chairmanship of Deputy Buttimer. The Bill is not drafted yet. The Government approved the heads of a Bill and has sent it to the Oireachtas committee at which a discussion will take place on them. After the committee holds its hearings, it will send the heads back to the Government and the Bill will then be drafted and the process of putting it through the Oireachtas - Second, Committee, Report and Final Stages - will then follow.

When Deputy Halligan speaks of warped justice, the Oireachtas has no input in the decisions made by the courts which are completely independent in the way they do their work and the decisions at which they arrive. While people might have a view of the decisions taken by the courts, that is the courts’ independent decision.

We are confined here in what we are doing by the Constitution and, within the Constitution, the law as determined by the Supreme Court. It is within these confines that the heads of this Bill have been approved by the Government and will follow through the process.

This does not involve anything extraneous like what the Deputy mentioned in terms of foetal abnormalities, rape, incest or whatever. The Deputy must remember that the people voted on this in the past. They made their intentions very clear in that the right to travel was given specifically to women. While people may have different views on this, the fact of the matter is that a woman in this Republic can only have access to a termination where there is a real and substantial threat to her life. Within that definition of the threat to her life is the Supreme Court determination of the right to life of the unborn. The circumstances in which this arises are emergency medical risk and the risk from suicidal intent which is a very different issue from suicide ideation.

The Government is focused on dealing with what it has to deal with within the Constitution and within the law. There is no change nor will there be any change in the work that is going on here to that. I hope that clarifies the position for the Deputy.

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