Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When witnesses from Holland were before the all-party committee, they outlined the kind of care available in their country. Some of the very good ideas they brought to the committee were helpful, in particular in relation to ancillary measures such as those around unmet contraception needs. They were a very good set of witnesses. The matter of the waiting period came up in the context of a discussion with those witnesses.

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I particularly remember asking how that works because I was trying to visualise somebody from this jurisdiction who had to travel and went to the Netherlands. How would that practically happen for them? Would they arrive in Amsterdam, turn up at a hospital and wait for three days? We were absolutely assured that it did not work like that. The way it worked was that it was from the date where the contact was first made, be that a phone call or the first time an appointment was made. That is what we were told happened and there was good reason for us to ask that kind of question because we obviously have women travelling from this jurisdiction.

I see no good reason to include a three-day waiting period and it is part of the reason why my name is on some of these amendments. If it is being relied on as the origin of this idea, it should similarly be relied on in how it happens in practice. It happens in practice in the Dutch experience when people make an appointment. That is what amendments Nos. 32 to 34, inclusive, are reflecting. They are accepting that if the three-day waiting period will not be dropped, there are a set of criteria that we can include in the Bill and they are very reasonable amendments from that point of view. There are not just difficulties in accessing primary care services in terms of conscientious objection but as the Minister knows, there are real difficulties in the availability of GPs and the length of time that it takes to get an appointment and this is an unnecessary imposition. If we are using the Dutch experience, it demonstrates to us that the three-day period is from the time that the appointment is made.

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