Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to start my contribution by expressing my support for the Irish Family Planning Association and the work it does. Unfortunately, Deputy Mattie McGrath has just exited the Chamber. He is a little like a rogue agency spewing out an awful lot of nonsense. We have all seen the leaflets, some of which are to be found in community centres, which ask: "Pregnant and scared? Do you need help? Are you confused? We are here to help you." When women are faced with a crisis pregnancy, they become desperate for help and to seek allies. Unfortunately - Deputy Bríd Smith alluded to this - because of our point blank refusal to tackle the issue of repealing the eighth amendment, the subject of terminations and the advice available for women remains underground. It is seen as sordid and seedy, but that should not be the case. Women should have access to the information they need.

The agencies and counsellors the Bill seeks to regulate effectively prey on vulnerable women. They seek out women who find themselves in a desperate situation and attack them. They need to be tackled, regulated and put out of business. Somebody recently sent met a copy of a leaflet from an organisation which purported to have a cure for cancer. Clearly, it does not, but if a family member has cancer and someone is desperate, he or she might telephone that number or call to that clinic. We have a job of work to do to regulate all of the agencies that offer what they call simple solutions to the problems people in vulnerable situations face. Some of the leaflets on the websites of the rogue agencies include very damaging, violent and disgusting language. They state abortion has been associated with emotional and psychological impacts. They list the symptoms as inlcuding guilt, depression, suicidal thoughts, difficulty in bonding with one's partner or children and eating disorders. The most recent leaflet exposed relies on a disproved connection between abortion and breast cancer. None of these claims has any basis in scientific fact.

The organisations in question have a clear hidden agenda. They attract desperate, vulnerable women in order that they can pressure them into making one decision or to stigmatise them because of a decision they might have already made. Rather than offer legitimate counselling or impartial advice to the vulnerable women concerned, they delay the counselling process and, in certain cases, show clients inappropriate images and use falsified health and scientific warnings to influence their decision.

How they operate is shameful. It is happening less than a kilometre away from our door and something definitely needs to be done.

A reputable service, such as the service provided by the Irish Family Planning Association, will counsel women on all of the available options and will not try to persuade, cajole or strong-arm a woman into making a choice. It will simply provide her with information.

Regrettably, the revelations about rogue agencies are not new. If one simply types the issue into Google, one can see that there have been several exposés. In 2007, Hot Pressran an article on this issue. It had a copy of a recording with a counsellor from one of these agencies. That was ten years ago. In that recording, much like the one from 2016, the "counsellor", which term I use advisedly, repeatedly told the lie that abortion causes breast cancer, stating:

Your risk of breast cancer rises significantly ... every woman who has an abortion her risk of breast cancer rises ... you're the one that's going to have to go away and get up in the stirrups and risk breast cancer which is already in your family. ... if you decide to continue with the pregnancy you'll have protected yourself for life from breast cancer.

This is to a vulnerable woman, a woman who is desperate who wants to know what her options are. She gets told that one of her options will definitely cause breast cancer. That is shameful. We know what is out there.

I thank Ms Ellen Coyne and the team in The Timesfor the exposé. It is welcome, but it is not new. We know that it is there. Like Deputy Bríd Smith, I also wonder why action was not taken on this while the proposers were in government but it was not and we are where we are. Therefore, it behoves us to support this legislation. I personally am not convinced that it will do all that it is intended to do but I welcome the fact there is cross-party support. It means we will have an opportunity on Committee Stage to look in detail and ensure that whatever arises out of our deliberations is fit for purpose and puts an end to it. There is broad agreement that we need to put an end to the rogue agencies that are operating.

These agencies, of course, are a last port of call for women. They should not be allowed to operate. A woman should know when she needs help that she can pick up the phone or make an appointment, that she will be counselled on all of the options that are available to her, that she will not be judged and that she will not be made to feel worse than she already does.

As I said, my party will be supporting this Bill, and we are happy to do so. I would also like to put on record our willingness to engage with all of the parties, and to take up the Minister on his offer to engage with the officials in his Department to ensure our collective goal in this regard to put these agencies out of business.

This Bill will bring the crisis pregnancy counsellors under some form of regulation and will allow for some kind of monitoring and complaints process but we need to be absolutely certain that it will stop people from disseminating misinformation or selectively highlighting what they term to be medical risks. This legislation is well-intentioned and I sincerely hope it does not have the impact of forcing reputable counsellors and counselling agencies into a regulatory framework while the ones we seek to regulate can change their name or go underground to remain outside of that. With cross-party support, if we put our heads together, we can ensure that does not happen. I very much look forward to the cross-party engagement on this legislation. When it comes to the next stage, as I said, my party will be supporting this and we are hopeful that we will be able to develop comprehensive legislation which ensures that we do not have to read any more of those exposé.

If I could, I will use my last few remaining seconds to reiterate my support for the Irish Family Planning Association and to reject the claims made by Deputy Mattie McGrath. The association does good work and that would not be disputed by the vast majority of Members in this Chamber.

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