Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Bill before the House, the idea of a €1 sanction for the intentional destruction of human life and of a Bill that would take away all discretion from a judge who would be dealing with such matters is not the direction we should go in. I believe that taking away all discretion from a trial judge is completely wrong. I believe that that Bill would protect abusers and people who order abortifacients over the Internet and use them inappropriately. That is certainly not the direction for us to go in. I do not believe this issue should be dealt with in a piecemeal fashion by changing some of the legislation we have in place at present.

As the Deputy said, this is an extremely complex issue. I recognise the very deeply-held views on every side of this. We all care deeply about this issue. I was part of the last Government that dealt with this issue for the first time properly in legislation through the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which regulated access to a termination of pregnancy if a woman's life was at risk from a threat to her physical or mental health. We all know there are many concerns at present for women, particularly regarding fatal foetal abnormality, cases of rape, incest, as well as very complex issues we undoubtedly need to address in this House.

The Government has set up the Citizens' Assembly. Like the Deputy, I pay tribute to the work of that assembly. It has been extremely thorough. We will certainly all have to get the full report from that Citizens' Assembly in order to be as well informed as the members of that assembly are at present following the detailed discussions they have had. It has been a very worthwhile process. It will be extremely worthwhile to see what they recommend. The assembly has dealt with it as the first issue on its agenda at the request of the Government. That is important. The issue has been debated many times in this House over the past number of years but the approach the Government has taken at present is to establish the Citizens' Assembly to review Article 40.3.3°. I certainly look forward to the outcome of that examination of Article 40.3.3° and to participating in the arrangements we will make in the Oireachtas. Clearly, we have said that we will set up a special committee. We have had good precedence with regard to that. The committee that Senator Buttimer chaired at the time had very respectful and inclusive discussions. I expect that is what will happen based on the outcome of the report from the Citizens' Assembly, which will be with us in the near future. It will then be up to the Oireachtas committee, the Business Committee and all of us to consider the best way forward in terms of the discussions in the House and whether a referendum will follow from that.

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