Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, Deputy Harris, has been very clear that he wants to bring legislation forward as quickly as possible. That legislation will be consistent with what the Government committed to before we asked the people to vote on this issue. We hope to have a draft Bill published before we break up for the summer. In fact, we hope to have Second Stage concluded before then, so that the Oireachtas committee can deal with the detail of Committee Stage during the summer months.

On the issue of Northern Ireland, we have a very positive North-South relationship on health co-operation. I suspect that women in Northern Ireland will be able to travel freely South across the Border, where our laws will apply, just as many Irish women have been travelling to mainland Britain to have their healthcare needs met for decades. While many of us would like to see legislative change in a number of areas in Northern Ireland, we have to respect the decisions that the devolved Government has made there.

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