Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start off. I did not initially intend to speak on this very important Bill, but as an opportunity has arisen to do so, I will take it.

May was a very emotional time for the women of Ireland, for women from older generations to younger generations, as we saw a new generation of women out marching, canvassing and voting for this important Bill. I am a little emotional thinking that we are finally getting to this stage. We must acknowledge the women who for years had campaigned, put themselves upfront and centre and who took a great deal of stick from the establishment and from others. It is important we commend those women. It is also important we commend the women who marched having campaigned for 30 years to see this day.

I would like to express special thanks to the members of the committee. They worked tirelessly and sometimes under uncomfortable pressure. As the previous speaker said, everyone came together. The members of the committee listened to the evidence presented to them, they stood front and centre and sometimes they took a great deal of stick, but they did that and got through with it. We need to commend and to thank them again, especially the chair of the committee, Senator Noone, who did so well. We must also commend the Citizens' Assembly because, without those people, we would not be debating this Bill today.

Regarding the legislation published by the Department of Health and the Minister, reference was made to the point that the general scheme of the Bill was published before the referendum. We have some observations about the Bill in terms of the way it has been changed from the general scheme of the Bill. The provision dealing with offences has been moved from section 9 to section 5. That places offences very largely at the front of the Bill. That does not generally happen with any other legislation. That is chilling. We should hold up this part of the Bill as being vitally important. For so many women, having an abortion was an offence for which they faced a penalty. Therefore, that is an important point.

On section 10, which deals with the risk to life, there is no mention of the opinion of the pregnant person in this section and how that would feed into the situation. That section dealing with the risk to life still includes the words "serious harm to ... health". The Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution was very strong that we cannot grade risk. At our party's Ard-Fheis, our position on that was passed in terms of harm as a risk factor in itself, but not serious harm. We need to examine that with a view to teasing out these parts of the Bill.

Section 12, which deals with conditions likely to lead to the death of the foetus, states that the obstetrician who certifies a risk to life or harm to health must carry out the abortion. For practical reasons of rostering and other reasons, that could not work.

Section 13, which deals with early pregnancy, has the three-day, 72 hours provision. We are meeting stakeholders on that and some medical professionals say it would risk access and can cause problems for those people.

The Oireachtas joint committee had five-hour meetings on the legislation some weeks ago. Many medical experts contributed, including Dr. Peter Boylan and representatives of the Medical Council. Representatives of the Irish College of General Practitioners attended also. On the issue of the 72 hours waiting period, we must listen to the medical experts. That is the one thing the referendum has taught us. We must listen to people on these issues, such as the women and the professionals. We in Sinn Féin will be guided by doctors and medical professionals on this matter. It seems that the 72 hour provision was a political decision because it was not part of the Oireachtas eighth amendment committee report.

We are also worried about the timeframe. We need to see more action from the Minister and the Department of Health in engaging with health professionals to ensure the start date of 1 January can be realised. That is very important.

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