Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes, very briefly. It is extremely regrettable that in setting out what he wishes to do in this case the Minister has once again narrowed it to the bare minimum. Like the Taoiseach, he has repeated the mantra that this Bill grants no new rights. The Minister, the Taoiseach and the Government have been at pains to minimise the scope of this Bill thereby refusing to take into account what is a crying need in our society, namely, catering for these very difficult and tragic situations of women in crisis pregnancies, as in the case we are now discussing, arising from rape and incest. It is unfortunate that the Minister and the Government are at pains in the first place to satisfy the concerns of certain Fine Gael Deputies and a minority in society, rather than direct attention to alleviate a very real human need in this regard. The alleviation and addressing of this would, moreover, have the support of a big majority in society.

I will leave it at that. If the Minister insists on voting this down he can be assured it will be very much on the agenda in the coming period, along with the tragedy of fatal foetal abnormality and inevitable miscarriage, all critical issues that have to be addressed urgently. They cannot be left to hang for another 20 years as happened with the X case.

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