Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----and a previous speaker said we should trust the Minister because he said this or that at the committee. All we want is for it to be written into the Bill. I respect Deputy Durkan because he has been in this Chamber a lot longer than I have, but when he asks me to trust the Minister without it being written into the Bill, it puts me in mind of selling sand in the Sahara desert because I do not trust it if it is not in the Bill.

The Government has clearly not spoken to the doctors about this as they are complaining about it. We were not on the committee that met for a number of months because we were not selected for it. We did not have a vote at the Oireachtas committee we attended, so we are entitled to raise issues here and to put them to a vote. That is what we will do because I respect every life - the life of the mother and that of the child. It is absolutely terrible if a baby is aborted because it has Down's syndrome or has a disability. It remains to be decided what a disability is and how serious it must be. That is the problem for many of us, so it is not unreasonable of us to ask that this be written into the Bill. That is all that we are doing.

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