Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, we were walking across Dublin and we met a Donegal man on a bicycle who was mad to talk. He said abortion had been an issue all his adult life and he could not believe it was over. He said he never wanted to hear the word again. I felt an enormous sympathy. What he said summed up exactly the way I felt about it myself. For so many, the weekend's vote was like an enormous weight being lifted. A ball and chain that dogged us all our adult lives was finally gone. I cannot believe that I am 50 years of age and it has taken this long. It has taken my daughter to come home for her first vote to get us here. For so many women, it represented so much. It is almost like society atoning for everything it has done to women in this country; atoning for how we stigmatised women faced with crisis pregnancies, the Magdalen laundries, the mother and baby homes, the shaming, the forced adoptions and the robbed identities about which we will hear later this afternoon. It still goes on.

The biggest sentiment behind the "Yes" vote and the question people asked most often was "Who am I to judge?". They said it was not their decision. So many people in our society have acknowledged that life is hard and that there are choices a lot of people have to make, including today, which they would really rather never having to make. It is not easy to parent alone in this State. It is not easy to raise a child or children with disabilities with the lack of support that is there. It is not easy to find out one is pregnant to a violent man. It is not easy, of course, to hear that one's much-wanted pregnancy has a fatal anomaly which is incompatible with life. As a society, we were never going to be able to end that pain, but we could make sure we did not add to it.

When Deputies Mick Wallace, Joan Collins and I introduced our legislation in 2012, only 20 Deputies voted with us. At that time, four incredible women went on the "Late Late Show". It was the first time people in this State openly identified themselves as having travelled for terminations. They were Amanda, Arlette, Jenny and Ruth who later founded the group Terminations for Medical Reasons. Is it not appalling that they and their colleagues had to lay bare their most appalling pain and tragedy in order to turn that into a social movement which changed history? They should not have had to do that. I am in awe of them and all of their colleagues who took part in the campaign. When we assembled here and Deputy Wallace moved the legislation on fatal foetal abnormalities, those women were in the Gallery. Afterwards, their hearts were broken that the House had voted against them again. There were people who travelled that day and there is probably someone who is travelling today also. We should not have compounded their pain but the fact that they stepped forward was huge.

It was not the beginning of the campaign. Some rewriting has taken place in that regard. However, it was the beginning of the final phase. We had the founding then of the abortion rights campaign and the first march for choice, which was the first openly pro-choice activity in the State. It was only after the march that, sadly, Savita died and the move to repeal gained a greater urgency. Many people came on board the repeal movement then and I am delighted they did. However, we should remember the time before the glory days when it was the Well Woman Centre, the Irish Family Planning Association and the Abortion Support Network in the UK which took in our women and girls and paid for their fares. If I had to name one person more than anyone else, it was Ailbhe Smyth, a giant of this movement who stood there when there was no glory to be had.

I acknowledge genuinely the role the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, played albeit it took them a while to get there. I have no doubt they were helped by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, at Cabinet and, definitely, by Deputy Kate O'Connell at the parliamentary party. While I am not sure they would have got there as quickly without Deputies Zappone and O'Connell, they were at the helm and steered the ship and history will testify that they delivered. I thank them for that. Let us be honest however and point out that politicians have not led on this issue. We have not even followed until recently. This has been an uphill battle. A boulder has been pushed up a hill for decades and no one here was behind it. Let us be honest about it for once. No one was involved. In fact, a lot of people here were sitting on the boulder, making it even more difficult for those outside who wanted to push for change. Others, of course, decided to jump ahead and claim some of the glory once the boulder was at the top of the hill and about to go down the other side, even though they had done none of the pushing. I do not say that to score points, but to learn the lesson because there is going to be a next time. Perhaps we can learn something next time around. We need to move to enact the legislation. Even today, however, I have heard people trying to out-posture each other as to who will be the most radical, claiming we should cancel all holidays between now and forever and bring in legislation tomorrow or even yesterday. It is nonsense. Can we please cop on with the games, which are despicable?

My last point is for students and young people. I am proud of the student movement. I was one of those students years ago but we did not succeed in changing the world. I hope this generation will. The young people who mobilised and enfranchised their peers are the legends in this. I hope they make a better job of changing the world than we did.

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