Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill. I welcome the representatives of the TFMR group to the Visitors Gallery. It is with deep sorrow that we are discussing this issue again and that the families have to go through this debate again. We have to try to finally deal with it.

The recent HSE report stated that 26 pregnancies were terminated by our health service in 2015. This compares with the 3,451 terminations in the United Kingdom to women with Irish addresses for the same year. That figure is higher if account is taken of the fact that some women do not give an address in the Republic and others use abortion pills procured over the Internet. The number of terminations carried out by the health service in 2014 was similar to 2015, which demonstrates that those of us who voted against the 2013 Act as being so restrictive as to make no difference were right to do so. The Act represented a failure of the previous Government to fulfil any obligation it had in respect of this issue. We continue the criminalisation of medical professionals with a 14-year jail sentence hanging over those who have to determine how close to death a mother is before they can make a decision on whether to terminate. This is repugnant to me and many others.

A pregnant women faced with a threat to her health who has the financial means and the ability to travel will opt do so rather than overcome the difficult barriers put in front of her by the 2013 Act, with limited prospects of securing a termination. The only reason this is tolerated by the people, which has had an impact on the thinking of legislators, is that if one has the money, one can travel. The consequences are dire for those who do not have the money. This could be part of the conversation in the context of Brexit, which was pointed out earlier, in respect of access to travel and access to services in a member state. Brexit could affect a woman's right to travel to England, for example. Some English NHS hospitals are already restricting terminations for Irish women to one per week, while private clinics are unaffordable. We are facing a different scenario, and this should be part of the debate.

The House needs to finally face up to its responsibilities in this area, and a good start would be to pass the legislation and have its constitutionality tested in the Supreme Court. I endorse the points made by Deputy Mick Wallace in this regard. Many legal experts disagree with the advice given to the Government by the Attorney General. With regard to the X case and the right to travel, the Supreme Court found against the then Attorney General. Attorneys General, therefore, are not always correct in their findings. If the Supreme Court were to rule this Bill unconstitutional, that, in my opinion and, I am sure, the opinion of the majority of people, would strengthen the case for a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. The Government parties are hiding behind that. If they believe fatal foetal abnormalities cannot be dealt with unless the eighth amendment is repealed, what is the point of going through a constitutional convention?

TFMR was not invited to the health committee hearings on the 2013 legislation. Its representatives would have had a crucial role to play in that debate. This forced Amanda Mellet to go to Geneva to have her constitutional rights vindicated, and the UN Human Rights Committee said Ireland's position was indefensible and inhumane. The previous Government had to respond to the committee by December 2014, yet there will be a constitutional convention for the next year or 18 months. The Government has to stop this and support the Bill. It should be brought to the courts to have its constitutionality tested. If the eighth amendment needs to be repealed, that should be done. A wraparound scenario cannot deal with the issue we face.

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