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

I know the Minister has said he will elaborate on the decisions. We have gone over where it came from and know where it did not come from. It was there and I do not want to disagree too much with people. It came up at the doors during the referendum. We talked to people about it. Some people loved it and some people hated it but it was certainly a feature.

That said, I do not know that it changed anybody's mind. People were curious about how it would work. We have outlined the reasons we think it will be difficult. We have outlined the fact that barriers to access will not be helpful. There are women in particular circumstances, and I have mentioned domestic violence, women in direct provision and women who live in the North, and I hope we will come away from this evening with some sort of understanding as to how they will be able safely to access the service. I respect what the Minister has said with regard to the emergency provisions but realistically speaking it would probably be better if they did not have to access the service through them or, indeed, have that access at the discretion of the doctor. That is probably not a good idea.

I do not see why we cannot start that time period from when the appointment is made. I do not know that people should necessarily have to state why they are making an appointment to see the GP if they do not feel comfortable doing so. Certainly there will be no difficulty with stating it is the reason for an appointment with the Irish Family Planning Association or the Well Woman Centre.

How the 72 hours is calculated is good because it minimises the time but we would be dishonest if we were to say anything other than this will act as a barrier. We should be trying to eliminate those barriers so access to terminations is free, safe and legal.

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