Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the chairperson of the Citizens' Assembly, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, and its members who took the time and effort to engage with witnesses and evidence. I thank them for deliberating on this important issue and the recommendations they made following this. Some feel the Citizens' Assembly was a mechanism or a ploy to delay this issue being brought forward and that it would never come to the conclusion that it did. Quite the opposite was the case. Nobody knew what would come out of this. If anything, it actually strengthens the case made by so many Members in the Chamber and those who disagreed with it.

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