Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the Tánaiste a very serious question. Does he trust the women of Ireland? Yesterday, the Minister for Health announced the terms of a review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.

When this historic legislation was debated and passed three years ago, it was the understanding of Members of this House that there would be a review of the operation of the Act, inclusive of policy. The Minister is instead only planning a review to see if it is operating as intended, and not to look at the legislation underpinning it. Did the Tánaiste, as a member of the Cabinet, sign off on this approach?

This review will not consider any policy changes to the Act. It amounts to a predetermined process and it is at odds with previous statutory reviews. How can the Minister for Health realistically just look at how this legislation is currently operating, without in any way considering the constraints on policy caused by the law? How can the Minister and the Tánaiste's Government be agnostic on this matter? Was this a political decision? The Minister said that the experiences of women would be a critical source of information for the review, but he does not intend to address the major problems they have encountered.

This legislation has a range of well-known problems. Only ten maternity units offer full termination services as well as very few GPs. There are also geographical issues across the board. Three years on, legislation for safe access zones around maternity hospitals has not been published. The reality for women is that the three-day waiting period and 12-week limit create serious access problems. Imagine that 375 women travelled to the UK last year in the middle of a global pandemic. I know some of them. There are real problems with this legislation and it should be reviewed. We have had many statutory reviews of legislation in recent years that have looked at legal frameworks. The Tánaiste was part of those when he was a Minister and the Taoiseach.

Why is this legislation being treated differently? The first review of the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015 specifically examined how it could be improved. The same process was followed for the Gender Recognition Act 2015 in the review of 2018, which took on board specifically the views of those affected by the legislation. It was the same with the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 in July 2019. The reviews of those three Acts included the legislation. Here, however, the Tánaiste's Government has now decided, and I am hoping to find out whether it was him, the Cabinet or the Minister alone, that this legislation will be treated differently.

What is the point of a review of the operation of the law on terminations in Ireland if it does not take on board the concerns of those impacted by the constraints of the legislation in the first place? Is the Tánaiste categorically ruling out any changes to the law? If so, why? What is the point of such a review, if it is going to change anything beyond service provision?

Why is this review being treated differently? Does the Government not trust the women of Ireland? Is the reality instead that the Government is taking this course because so many of the members of Fianna Fáil, the Tánaiste's partners in government, opposed and voted against this legislation in the first place and this is the most politically expedient thing to do?

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