Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----on this fundamental change to healthcare ethics and practice. He has displayed a blatant disregard for the rights of dedicated healthcare workers. He will meet any group from the other side that comes up tonight and wants to meet him, but he refuses to meet the professional bodies of our doctors, pharmacists or nurses or anyone else. Such contempt for our healthcare profession is appalling. He listed the groups he has met. He would bring any group from the other side in to meet him so long as there were two or three of them. Such bias is shocking. A spokesperson for the group of pharmacists, Dr. Orla Nolan, a Dublin pharmacist, said:

Freedom of conscience is a widely recognised human right. However, there is no explicit acknowledgement in the draft legislation of this right as it pertains to pharmacists. The legislation denies pharmacists their right to freedom of conscience and compels them to produce, distribute and dispense drugs that they know will be used for the express purpose of ending a life. This is unacceptable and will place many pharmacists in an untenable position, forced to choose between practising their profession and following their conscience.

Dr. Nolan called on the Minister and the Dáil to amend the legislation to explicitly protect the conscience rights of pharmacists, but he is not listening. He has closed ears and a pure, one-track vision of this. Someone said this is a trophy project. It looks like it, but to undermine and trample over all these professional people is an outrage and a total affront to democracy and the healthcare professionals on whom we depend day in and day out up and down the country. It is ignorant and disgraceful that the Minister will not listen to them.

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