Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I met somebody from the Termination for Medical Reasons group yesterday. She asked me what the group can do to influence the Government to end the absolutely unacceptable and tragic situation that is being inflicted on many women in this country. I refer to cases in which a woman who is happy to be pregnant and hopes to give birth to a child discovers the terrible fact that the foetus is suffering from a fatal abnormality - a condition that is incompatible with life - and has no chance of survival. A woman in such circumstances is currently forced to continue with the pregnancy even though the child has no chance of survival, or go to Britain without support for an abortion and possibly have to leave her dead child there. I know of an appalling case in which a woman in these awful, tragic and unbelievable circumstances had to bring the child back in the boot of a car. Is the Taoiseach seriously telling this woman, who told me last night she has met several people in the past few months - since the legislation was passed - who have gone through the same terrible circumstances she has gone through, that he intends to do nothing at all to end these tragedies? If that is what he is saying, it is absolutely beyond belief and I appeal to him to reconsider. If he does not intend to reconsider his position, perhaps he can advise me of what we should say to these women.

Did the Taoiseach discuss the issue of poverty, which church leaders have been raising, when he met them recently? In November of this year, the Archbishop of Dublin issued an appeal for basic foodstuffs because thousands of people are overwhelming the Crosscare food bank as they look for food. It was the first time since Archbishop Martin took up his position that he issued such an appeal on behalf of the food bank, which does not have enough food to meet the needs of hungry people from all sorts of sectors of society. In his speech in the Pro-Cathedral, the archbishop described how children are going to school hungry and are unable to learn as a result. He spoke about how university students are in dire straits. He said that these problems stem from the increases in unemployment and poverty that have resulted from the cuts associated with the policy of austerity. Did the archbishop raise these issues with the Taoiseach? Is he not ashamed, as the Taoiseach of this country, that church leaders are begging for food on behalf of the hungry people in our society? As we approach Christmas, this country will probably have more hungry people, more homeless people and more desperate people than at any time since the 1920s or 1930s. Is that not a matter of shame for the Government that it is presiding over this country at such a time? Should it not do something about it?

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