Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate, which has been ongoing since the country voted to insert the eighth amendment into our Constitution over 30 years ago. The beauty of our Constitution is that it belongs to the Irish people and it is only they who can amend it. To date, the debate has been very respectful and I hope that will continue to be the case. I compliment those who served in the Citizens' Assembly and my colleagues who served on the Oireachtas committee that brought forward these proposals. I do not wish to undermine their views or diminish the work they have done, but it will be the people of Ireland who will have the ultimate say. It was far from helpful of Ministers to say that if the repeal side loses, the result will not be accepted. Everybody in the House is entitled to a view and to campaign or articulate a view. They can try to influence people and apprise them of the rationale of that view. I encourage both sides to continue to do so.

I am very conflicted in my personal views. I voted against the protection of life during pregnancy legislation in the last Dáil because I felt a person's mental state is transient. What a person feels today might be totally different from what he or she will feel next week, in a fortnight or in a month. I gave an example at the time of that legislation being debated in the Oireachtas of a school friend who took an overdose. I was the person who came to him. At that stage in his life, he was very lonely and unhappy. Today, however, he is very content and happy and living a very fulfilled life. He felt an awful lot better in a matter of days and weeks after getting particular help.

There was a Private Members' proposal to facilitate terminations in the case of life-limiting conditions, where a parent with medical advice and guidance chooses to go through with a termination. I voted in support of that. My colleague, Deputy Ferris, outlined, quite clearly and compassionately, the rationale behind such an instance. The name the lady used this morning is not her true name. The name used was Ciara. She outlined the antagonising journey that she faced when she had to go across the water to have a medical termination. Nobody should be forced to do this but some people, for whatever reason, make that choice. We should facilitate that. If somebody chooses to go full-term in a pregnancy where there are life-limiting conditions, we do not offer the required level of support in perinatal hospice care. We are failing in that regard.

What strikes and disappoints me is that during previous discussions we spoke about the need for greater medical care when someone goes through a pregnancy and for greater standards of care. We argue there should be greater consistency and the same level of care across the island but it still has not happened. Some of the findings and recommendations in the report of the Oireachtas committee indicate that there must be a greater standard of equal care across the country. That is still not happening.

The ability of women to access anomaly scans at 20 weeks depends on their geographical location. We talk about improvements to counselling and support facilities for women. Again, they are not where they should be and have not been. We have been speaking about this for years now. We talk about enhanced and improved perinatal hospice services. Again, we had the same conversation during the protection of life legislation and, unfortunately, they have not advanced and improved to any great level in recent years.

We are still talking about what we need to do and are still promising what we should be doing but at the same time, we are failing to deliver. We have spoken about the need for free contraceptives to help prevent unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. I note an article published last week in theIrish Independentin which the Minister stated that if this legislation goes through, if the referendum is passed, then he would consider introducing free contraceptives. I do not think it should be a matter of whether the referendum passes or fails. That is something we should have done a long time ago.

Perhaps there is greater emphasis on introducing repeal of the eighth amendment than on considering some of the other measures that can help in respect of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, such as how we teach sex education to children and teenagers and the areas of free contraceptives and perinatal care. We did not need the Citizens' Assembly or the Oireachtas committee to tell us that this is what we should be doing. We should not be doing it now; we should have done it years ago. Personally, I have no issue where medical intervention is needed to save the life of the mother or the child. Medical professionals have said that as it currently stands, it is problematic and needs to be changed. I believe that most people accept terminations in the instance of medical reasons.

I do, however, have an issue with 12 weeks in the case of a healthy woman and a healthy child. I also acknowledge that in this country, we have voted to give a right to travel and a right to information. Thousands of women every year, for whatever their reasons, opt to travel across the water to seek medical attention. We know from the evidence given to the Oireachtas committee that, unfortunately, many women here opt to take tablets to bring on a termination where there is no supervision or medical care in place. That is worrying and something we need to address.

I honestly believe this is a choice for the citizens of Ireland to make. I am lucky, in this instance, that I can choose according to my conscience when I go to vote at the referendum. I am happy to vote to facilitate a referendum and I will be supporting the legislation to ensure we have a referendum. When I go to vote at the referendum, as it currently stands, I still have grave reservations in relation to the 12 weeks. However, I pledge that I will abide by the choice and the decision of the Irish people. I will not participate in the debate but I will abide by their decision. We all need to acknowledge that the wisdom of the Irish people will prevail with regard to this referendum and I look forward to it taking place. I encourage everybody on all sides of the debate to continue to debate in a respectful manner and to acknowledge the alternative view. Then it is our job as legislators to give effect to what the people of Ireland decide.

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