Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Deputy Howlin referred to the Kennedy Summer School, which I had the privilege of attending and speaking at. I also paid tribute to its founder, Mr. Noel Whelan. The school is going from strength to strength and will show its worth in the years ahead, even more so than it has already.

Deputy Howlin mentioned the views expressed by Archbishop Martin on the obligations of Catholic politicians. As he was speaking, I was reminded of the words of St. John Henry Newman, who was canonised in Rome this weekend. When he learned about the new doctrine of papal infallibility, he said he would drink to the Pope, but would first drink to his own conscience.

What St. John Henry Newman was encapsulating in that was the idea in the Catholic faith that allows people to act according to their conscience, even Catholic politicians.

On the issue of abortion in Northern Ireland, I have had not had any discussions with religious leaders about that particular matter. I understand the representatives of the major Catholic and Protestant churches have encouraged the parties to form an Executive and Assembly in order to prevent that law from being applied to Northern Ireland. This is perhaps with a view to applying a different law which would not go as far as is currently likely to happen in the next few weeks. That is very much a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive to decide on, however, based on the principles of devolution and local democracy.

Deputy Coppinger referred to the availability of abortion services across the State. The referendum was just over a year ago and the legislation was passed towards the end of last year. It was never the case that services were going to start right away. It always takes time to phase in new health services. It is encouraging, however, that there are now 340 general practitioners, GPs, providing abortion services across the country. If one considers that there are approximately 4,000 terminations of pregnancy a year in Ireland, that is a doctor-patient ratio of 1:12. If each of those doctors performed maybe ten terminations a year, that is enough to cover the service. Accordingly, 340 GPs providing the service is quite a lot when one considers that only about 4,000 terminations of pregnancy are sought every year.

When it comes to hospitals, I am not sure if it is down to conscientious objections. I will have to check up on that. There may be other reasons in different hospitals. It might be down to the volumes of referrals or staff training. Irish doctors and nurses are not trained to perform surgical abortions. If they are willing to do so, they would have to be trained. It might not simply be down to conscientious objection. It is in one hospital for sure but it is something I will have to look into a little bit further.

On the church-State dialogue process, the idea behind the new covenant and the new relationship is that it is a matter which church and State should figure out together. It should not be designed or invented by one side. In many ways, I am not sure how it is going to turn out yet. The opportunity of the plenary was to have that discussion with the church bodies and religious bodies as to how they think it should turn out.

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