Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were two scenarios - the referendum being carried or it not being carried. If it had not been carried, obviously there would be no legislation at all. Now that it has been carried, legislation can be introduced. A lot of work was put into the general scheme that was published in March. The planning at the time will make it much easier for the Department of Health and the Attorney General to produce the actual legislation. The amount of work done and planning in the development of the general scheme means that it will be done in weeks, whereas ordinarily it would have taken months. We can examine the position on women from Northern Ireland. My initial impression is that it will be treated like a normal health service. It is already the case that women who reside in Northern Ireland and women who are Irish citizens can travel to Ireland to avail of healthcare. There are people on the Northern side of the Border whose GPs are south of the Border. People from Northern Ireland already come to hospitals here for healthcare. I imagine it will be treated as a normal part of the health service in the normal way. We also need to work on the detail of that aspect. I have mentioned that a number of things need to be done. It is not just a question of legislating in the Dáil and the Seanad. Clinical guidelines will also be needed. It will be necessary to regulate and license the new medicines. We are still anticipating that even with the best intentions, it will be the end of the year - 1 January 2019 - before we give full effect to the will of the people. The legislation might be through in October or November, but it will be January before we will be able to give effect to the new regime.

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