Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Donnelly has definitely misconstrued the amendment. He has his own interpretation which he is entitled to have, but it is certainly wrong. What we are looking for is reasonable and fair. The Minister gave himself a pat on the back earlier for sticking to what he had promised the people before the referendum. He did state abortion would not be allowed on the grounds of disability. We just want to have safeguards and that is all we are asking him for.

We hear the Government talk about how inclusive we are becoming as a society and how we are giving equality to all of the people. We have seen the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified after a scandalously long period of ten years, yet here we are unwilling to provide any safeguard to protect the lives of unborn children who may have disabilities. I find that very hard to stomach.

As somebody who came from the education profession, who strongly and firmly believes in treating every child equally, who strongly believes in inclusion in society and inclusive schools and who strongly believes in giving everybody a fair chance, what we are saying to society? Are we saying some people deserve to live and others do not because that is the way it appears? This is a fair and reasonable amendment and it is beyond me how the Minister could overlook it.

On gender selection, I remember some months before the referendum being absolutely shocked after I had discussions with a couple of women. They told me that when they had been expecting their babies, they had gone to well known maternity hospitals in Dublin and received a high standard of treatment, for which they were very grateful. However, they mentioned to me that one of the ladies had asked to be given information on the sex of her baby and had been told quite firmly by a nurse that they could not give her that information. When she asked why, she was told that a high number of women who had asked the sex of their baby had not returned to the hospital. We can draw our own conclusions from this. I am just stating I would be worried about it. We cannot say with absolute certainty-----

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