Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and it relates to the amendments of Deputies Higgins and Boyd Barrett dealing with categorisation of incest and rape of women, which are some of the most heinous crimes that can be committed against women or men in certain circumstances. A woman can become pregnant with an unwanted child as a result of such an act. Some of the Government representatives yesterday indicated again that this legislation does not go far enough and we want to put it on record that it certainly does not go far enough in this respect. If the Government is serious about tackling the issue of women having access to terminations of pregnancy or abortions in Ireland in cases of rape and incest, we should discuss seriously how to put a process in train. From such a discussion there should be consideration of how to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution to allow us have the debate and reflect what the majority of the country believes in that we should allow abortion or termination of pregnancy in Ireland when the pregnancy is an outcome of horrendous abuse of a woman's body through rape or incest.

We know the amendment will not be accepted but it is important to make the point in the Chamber that the population of Ireland has moved way beyond what we are debating. No amount of intimidation, threats, phony scientific arguments, biased opinion polls or anti-abortion lobbies can change what is happening in our society. I spoke to a woman this morning as I left the house at 11 a.m. after getting a couple of hours' sleep and she told me the debate in the Dáil is a sham because every family has experience of somebody having to travel to Britain for a termination of pregnancy or abortion. I ask the Minister to respond on whether he will start that debate. Will we begin to reflect what society is saying to us as public representatives?

In legislation a woman who has procured an abortion, along with anybody who helps that woman, could face up to 14 years in prison but a person who has raped a young woman would get a shorter sentence. In many cases judges offer financial compensation to women rather than putting these people in jail for their crime. This sends out a bad message to society, as women are being treated as second or third class citizens in such cases. We in the Dáil should not accept this.

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