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

The Minister said that the ultrasound will not be available in all GP practices. When the girl or woman goes to her GP and he does not have ultrasound equipment but her medical card only covers her for him, what will happen then? We need an honest answer to that.

As Deputy Michael Collins said, it is regrettable that the Minister is portraying us as if we have no care for pregnant women or women who just choose not to have their baby. That is not true. We have, as we have stated, high regard for life. Where the Minister in his role has let them down, we are doing our best to get people looked after in the North. A woman will need to leave Dingle tomorrow morning and travel all the way up to Belfast just to save her eye. We are doing our best to ensure her eyesight is saved. It is wrong for the Minister to say we have no care for women.

We have care for men too because they are facing the same dilemma. They are not being looked after and they are losing their sight as well, as we have told the Minister in this House several times over the past two years. The Minister still has not made a difference or changed anything. He is just not listening. Maybe he will look after the people in urban areas, on the east coast or inside the Pale, but he is not looking after them where we come from. We regret that he made that comparison. I am very disappointed.

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