Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Health's initiative to put in place an external review, but it is not enough and it is not a substitute for an inquest. There are a lot of questions around the review, including what the terms of reference and qualifications of a reviewer will be and whether it will be capable of public scrutiny. There is something very wrong in the Department of Justice and Equality. I wonder whether we would be waiting this long if men were dying. Both the former Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and the current Minister, Deputy Flanagan, gave me guarantees that the legislation was a priority matter for them and the Government. Objections such as those the Taoiseach has raised are obvious and have already been dealt with. It is a priority for the whole of the justice committee. Local authorities the length and breadth of the country and representatives from all parties and none have supported this call. Nevertheless, the Department of Justice and Equality, which promised that we would have this legislation through every Stage before the summer, has yet to deliver the heads of a Bill.

The justice committee, on which Deputy Ó Caoláin and I sit, has met with the Department's officials. Either they do not understand what priority is or they are not listening to the Taoiseach's Ministers. There is no excuse for this. Babies have been conceived and delivered in the time the Department of Justice and Equality told us the legislation would be seen through every Stage. It is about fighting for better maternity care. We need these measures and we need the Taoiseach to get behind forcing the Department to stop messing about and simply deliver the legislation.

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