Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The decision has been made and we must respect the wishes of the majority of the people. I am a democrat and wholeheartedly accept the wishes of the people but Members should be given more time - the whole process should be given more time - as regards debating this legislation.

I have not been in the Dáil for long and have only attended a few committee meetings carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny of legislation. That is probably because I am a member of the transport committee and the Minister, Deputy Ross, is not exactly a man who brings too many Bills before this Dáil. I must say that when the Bills have come before the committee in the past few months - one was a Bill that had only a couple of amendments on it - but before they went through Second Stage they got plenty of discussion by the various interested groups, not just in one meeting but over a few meetings.

It is a shame that the Minister did not go through the process of pre-legislative scrutiny. I do not see why there is a rush job on this. The Minister will say the people have waited for decades to change this amendment but I note that while the eighth amendment committee came out with a recommendation, it did not have access to the heads of the Bill before we went to the country with the referendum. I am sure there are some who have different thoughts on the whole legislation. We go by the vote of the people but sometimes we like to play along with exit polls and what comes out of them and what was in people's minds. The Minister acknowledges, for example, that one issue was about the 12 weeks and nearly half the people who voted yes in the exit polls had reservations about the 12-week issue. What if these things had been discussed more in advance? The decision has been made but the heads of the Bill should have been made more available and should have been discussed more.

David Quinn of the Iona Institute acknowledged the day after the vote that we must accept defeat graciously. I am a pro-lifer and we must find ways of ensuring that our views are still kept out there, without breaking the law, and I acknowledge that. I ask the Minister, as we go on to Committee Stage, to have some of the items spoken about by my colleagues in the past few minutes looked at again. There is the issue about the conscience decision by medical administrators, doctors, nurses and midwives. They have concerns and if they have their beliefs, we should not shove instruments down their throat to get this process through.

It is ironic that following the passing of the referendum, we could find €12 million straight away to put in place what is needed to have abortions in this country yet there is still not mention of care needed for people in pregnancy stress cases. It is amazing that if more money had been provided down through the years, we might never have come to this situation as it is. I am not going to hog the debate but I ask the Minister that the issues be considered. I will not be standing in the way but I ask that some of the proposed amendments be given fair consideration.

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