Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We hear a lot about opinion polls, Amárach being one, but we had a really big one where people went out and voted in the referendum in May. The people have made their decision. As politicians, we all take passing interest to various degrees in opinion polls but the only one that matters is the ballot. People made their decision in respect of this.

This is not an amendment about choice, far from it. This is an amendment about a bunch of politicians telling doctors what to do in terms of the diagnostic tools they use and, if they do not follow that mandate, offering them a prison sentence of up to a year. To be clear, that is what Deputy Nolan's amendment does. She is right that the woman has to have the ultrasound according to this amendment. Deputy Nolan is not going to force her to look at the heartbeat or the screen but mandatorily, under her amendment, every single woman would have to have an ultrasound and every single doctor would have to carry one out. This is about choice. Of course there is a need for ultrasound in obstetrics; that is not really the question. It is not for Deputy Nolan or me to tell our doctors when to use the ultrasound machine. The idea that we must scan every woman to date her pregnancy is kind of bizarre. Many thousands of women will have gone to their GP today in early pregnancy and with their doctor, based on their last menstrual period, LMP, will have worked out the stage of pregnancy they are at.

I get frustrated, and we also had a bit of it last night, by this idea that until every other issue in the health service is sorted out and no one is waiting for any other procedure, we cannot invest any money whatsoever in crisis pregnancies and women's healthcare; that women's healthcare must come last. Until every man has a new hip or every man has had his cataract done, we cannot invest in women's healthcare. This is healthcare and just as the Deputies come in here and demand that I should do more in all the other things, they should be demanding we do more on this and it is worrying that they are not. This amendment would force doctors, based on no medical reason but the views of politicians, to scan every women mandatorily, to face a prison sentence if they do not do it and to subject every woman to an ultrasound. It would be a terrible use of what people rightly point out is a scarce resource in the health service.

I can categorically state that Dr. Boylan would not be supporting this amendment as somebody offering me clinical advice on the implementation of this service. I am sure he would not like to be quoted in any way suggesting he is supportive of it. Dr. Boylan is absolutely to highlight, as many doctors have, that we absolutely do need to provide ultrasound for cases when our doctors believe we need to use them, not for when politicians do. I am not in a position to accept the amendment.

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