Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I object really strongly to the provisions of section 22(2)(f), as proposed in amendment No. 43a. Are we really going to look for not just the age and marital status but the ethnicity of the people who receive services this country has democratically decided should be available to women to allow them to address and control their fertility?

We had a very detailed debate in this country about the issue and our citizens voted in favour of these changes. What is the inclusion of "ethnicity" about? Is this a measure to find out if immigrants in this country avail of services concerning their health as women? Is that what it is about? Why do this amendment's proponents want to know the service users' ethnicity? Is that a code word to ask if these are people of colour or ethnically Irish and like the rest of us? Would the answer to that mean these issues should somehow be approached in a different way? Is it implied that people who are of a different ethnicity somehow have less regard, feeling or care where these issues are concerned then do ethnically white Irish people? The Deputies should seriously consider withdrawing this amendment because it is needlessly offensive. To be perfectly honest, it owes more to the language of South Africa prior to the ending of apartheid-----

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