Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss amendment No. 12, which arose out of discussions we had around the current practice. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that we are a bit prescriptive around what is recorded. It is important. We need proper records, similar to the hospital in-patient enquiry data, HIPE. This will be a new service so the data could give the review some real and tangible meaning. We are all conscious of the vote and that people voted for this new service, but equally we need to make sure that the service delivers for those women. I do not believe we can rely on the data collected and collated to date in the context of the protection of life during pregnancy legislation. It does not give us enough information to be able to inform the service and make sure that women are accessing the service. I am especially conscious of areas where there may be a geographic element to it, for example. We could then look at the data and surmise why there was either a large number of terminations in one area or no terminations in another area.

Having spoken with doctors and legal practitioners, they are very much of the opinion that this needs to be in the legislation so that we can make sure it is collected and collated, and that it is used to give us a realistic picture of abortion statistics and, more important, of the trends. The collation of data will facilitate the improvement of the service. It will make sure the service is meeting the needs of those who need it and it will ensure that any future policy changes are undertaken with meaningful data in mind and with the services informed on that basis.

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