Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a few brief observations on this section and on the amendments. We have spent an extraordinary long period of time - six months or more - in considering all the views and trying to balance the rights of the mother and of the unborn child. These are fundamental rights to life. What I say is probably against the grain of all previous contributions. It is being unrealistic if we are to collectively endeavour to strike that correct balance and then seek to walk away from any chill factor - the term used in the European Court judgment and in reference to the 1861 Act - and hope in good faith that all of the construct in this legislation will be abided to by every party without any sanction for anyone who may breach the provisions of that Act. We need to retain a chill factor. As Deputy Kelleher said, nobody wants to see the vulnerable girl face a sanction of 14 years imprisonment. We pass laws in this House every day which provide a range of sanctions but this House is not the authority that decides to prosecute or that administers the penalty. We are discussing the case of a person who willingly decides to flout the provisions of the law. It would be extraordinary if there were to be no sanction in that case. Of course, nobody wants vulnerable people to be punished but unscrupulous doctors may decide that they will flout the law and they may not acknowledge the equal rights which the Irish people provided in the Constitution. One party will lose out entirely, will have their life taken without any due regard to the equal right. It is ridiculous to argue that a chill factor of some degree should not be retained.

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