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

The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, will meet party spokespeople tomorrow to discuss this. He only got the result of the referendum on Saturday and approval from Cabinet this morning. He is acting quickly in this regard and will meet the spokespeople tomorrow to discuss a way forward.

The Deputy's analysis is correct. There will be a lacuna, a gap period, between the point at which the referendum is certified - it has not been certified yet - and the legislation is enacted and commenced. During that period, the same problems that women in crisis pregnancies have faced for years and decades will continue. I understand the good intentions behind the Deputy's proposal. What we want to seek, however, is a cross-party approach. Part of the reason this change happened is because we had a reasonably good cross-party approach to this issue. Everyone supported the Citizens' Assembly and everyone was part of the all-party committee. Almost the majority of Members voted to put this question to the people. I would like that broad cross-party approach to continue.

We are open to discussing having discrete legislation along the lines suggested by the Deputy. If we go down that route, however, we need to do it with eyes open, understanding that it may delay the timeline for the substantive legislation.

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