Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Nolan's amendment ensures that taxpayers' money will not be used to fund abortions except in situations of risk to the mother's life and I certainly support it. The rationale for this amendment is clear. It is not what Deputies have tried to say, hijacking it and claiming all other kinds of intentions. The amendment simply respects the choice and convictions of people who do not wish to have any involvement with abortions, by ensuring that they are not continuously forced to pay for the taking of innocent human life. Anyone can appreciate that. Whatever differing views people may have about whether abortion should be legal, compelling people, especially those who believe that all human life should be protected, to pay for the killing of the most vulnerable is disgraceful. If this amendment is accepted, as I believe it should be, there will still be nothing in the Bill to prevent those who wish to pay for abortions from doing so. The amendment simply prevents people from being forced to pay for abortions that they do not believe in. For the Oireachtas to exercise such compulsion in respect of people would be a cruel and oppressive disregard of the right of persons to refrain from involvement in abortions.

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The prospect is outrageous and is a mark of striking intolerance for the right of a person at the very least to stay out of the taking of human life. To create a situation whereby all who live and work in Ireland cannot avoid paying for such killing is profoundly wrong. It is no answer to say only a small percentage of public expenditure will go to fund abortions. The gross injustice of forcing citizens to pay for abortions remains regardless of the exact amount, and the Bill in its current form provides for taxpayer funding of the full cost of abortions in all cases, even for abortions under 16 weeks that can be performed for any reason.

The Amárach Research polling in the wake of the referendum showed that, excluding those who stated they did not know, 59% of adults in Ireland, including 44% of "Yes" voters, oppose taxpayer funding of abortions. Of course, the referendum vote was for a change to the Constitution. Lest the naysayers here say we do not accept that, of course we accept it. We are democrats, elected by the people for the time being. However, the referendum was not a mandate for everything in the Bill. It was to delete the eighth amendment and we were to legislate here. It is shocking that people are not allowed to table amendments. We are allowed do so and to debate them here without being ridiculed for our views and for representing those views here fairly and squarely.

As I have said, taxpayer funding of abortions was not inserted in the Bill until after the referendum was held. Much has been said about people reading the Bill before the vote. There was nothing about taxpayers funding abortions inserted in the Bill until after the referendum. This is very clear and factual. There was nothing about this prior to the referendum so how would people have known about the intention to fund it? This is why so many people told the Amárach Research pollsters they were opposed to the funding. This is not the only thing they were not told. Many things were said and told and untold but history will have to judge that.

Declining to provide public funding for abortions also saves a great many lives. A range of peer review studies from the US, where the use of public moneys to fund abortions is generally prohibited at federal level and in most US states, shows the absence of public funding for abortions reduces the number of abortions. In June 2017, the British Government announced it would fund abortions for women resident in Northern Ireland. The official report on abortion statistics for England and Wales in 2017 noted an increase in the number of women from Northern Ireland having an abortion in England and Wales since the funding announcement. The volume in the third and fourth quarters of 2017 increased by 46% and 62%, respectively. If this is not evidence, what is? Adopting this amendment, therefore, is also in line with the Government's pre-referendum assurances that abortion would be safe and rare if legalised. That has gone out the window.

I respect what Deputy Clare Daly said about the right to table amendments and others attacking the amendment. I salute Deputy Nolan for being courageous and brave enough to table this amendment. She is a mother and a caring person. Deputy Kelleher mentioned the late Savita Halappanavar. Her name was used and misused. We all got phone calls and we must deal with that. Her name was hugely used in the referendum campaign in spite of the fact that three reports commissioned by the State found she died from medical neglect. The Minister can shake his head all he likes.

I want to mention fatal foetal abnormality. I travelled to Geneva with a number of women who had diagnoses of fatal foetal abnormality. We travelled to the United Nations in an effort to get that horrible terminology disused and we had great success. The Minister's HSE, of which he is so proud, has in the main disbanded the terminology and is using "life-limiting conditions", which is much more humane and respectful of the parents and their little unborn babies and born babies. I have met some of them. Some of them live for weeks. Some live for days, hours or weeks. One is 11 now and living in County Cavan. I have met many who received that cruel diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality. They did not get perinatal hospice or support here. We asked in talks on forming a government for Fine Gael to roll-out a perinatal hospice service but it fell on deaf ears, like all of the other questions we have on healthcare for women and their babies. It is not there. All of sudden, the Minister has money and manna from heaven to pay for everything. He will pay the doctors more to carry out abortions than he does to deliver healthy babies.

Earlier in his speech the Minister noted he met people-----

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