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

The people have indeed spoken in what was a great act of democracy. A very clear majority, more than two thirds of Irish people, voted to amend our Constitution, to remove the eighth amendment and to put a new clause into our Constitution;13 new words that enable us to legislate for abortion in Ireland so that it is legal, safe and, it is to be hoped, rare. It was a resounding result and credit for this result should be given to many different people. I would particularly like to mention the members of the Citizens' Assembly under the chairmanship of Ms Justice Laffoy. They met weekend after weekend to study the issues and come up with proposals. It is interesting that they voted for those proposals by almost the exact same margin as was the result of the referendum, so I do not think anyone can argue against the Citizens' Assembly's representative characteristics.

I would also like to mention the all-party committee under the chairmanship of Senator Catherine Noone, the Members of this House and the other House who took part in this campaign on all sides, the civil society campaign led by Together for Yes and others, and especially those very brave women and men who told their individual stories. By opening their hearts they caused others to open their minds. That was the crucial thing that changed people's minds over the last number of years. I agree that this change in our society did not just happen in the last few weeks. Perhaps it happened quite some time ago and the result we had at the weekend was just a reflection of that.

It is now our job, as a Government and an Oireachtas, to give effect to the people's decision. That involves a few things. It involves new law to repeal some existing legislation and bringing in new legislation to regulate for the termination of pregnancies in Ireland. It also involves the development of clinical guidelines by GPs, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. It will also require the licensing and regulation of some medicines which will need to be done by the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. There are three discrete pieces of work that have to be done. One of them falls to us while the others fall to others.

Meetings on the clinical guidelines involving the Department of Health and the various colleges and bodies that represent doctors are happening today. There had been initial discussions prior to the referendum but obviously nobody wanted to prejudge the result so detailed discussions really only begin now. The HPRA will also start its work. When it comes to legislation, it is the view of Government that we want to legislate as soon and as quickly as possible. We also want to make sure that we do not rush the process either because there are people who do not accept the result of the weekend and who may challenge the referendum itself in the coming days and who may wish to challenge the legislation in the months and years ahead once we pass it.

It is important that we act with haste but not too much haste that we put through bad legislation. I think everyone will agree with that sentiment. The Minister for Health brought a memo to the Cabinet this morning. The Cabinet authorised him to work with the Attorney General to begin the drafting of detailed legislation right away as a priority, with a view to having it in this House before the summer recess. We are agreeable to the Deputy's suggestion that the Dáil term be extended into the recess, if necessary, to allow this matter alone to be legislated for and get through Second Stage before we rise for the summer, thereby allowing the select committee to consider the legislation during the recess.

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