Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Chairman's remarks made earlier. Deputy Nolan and everybody has the right to put down whatever amendment they wish. What they do not have the right to do, however, is put misinformation before the House. Much of what was said is medically and factually 100% incorrect. I do not say that simply as a view but on the basis of participating in weeks of discussions and the top-level exposure we were given to medical information, which utterly contradicts much of what was said. I will not waste time by repeating those points.

This is about access to healthcare, as part of our maternity services. We are very lucky in this country that despite all the cutbacks women who are pregnant get access to free healthcare, which is incredibly important. Are we now to put into that scenario a two-tier system where one goes to one's doctor - one might not have children or have a few children, everything might be going great and then something happens and the woman decides she needs a termination in consultation with her doctor - and he says, "Sorry, you do not have the money, I cannot deal with you so off you go." It does not make sense.

Many of the arguments made by the Deputies simply do not stack up. It is unacceptable that we would expect the British state to provide healthcare services for our citizens. While I appreciate the points made by Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, all the problems in health service, which he outlined in terms of eye operations and all the rest, exist now when we do not pay for abortion care. Clearly, they have nothing to do with whether we provide abortion care. There are many ways in which we could get this money. He said that people with millions of euro could get abortions. People with millions of euro get child benefit but we do not argue against that. It is a universal payment. How are we to get the money for the operations? We might tax them on their income and perhaps Deputy Healy-Rae would support me in our call made previously for a millionaire's tax that would generate some much wanted revenue that could assist in providing these services.

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