Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt this situation has thrown up a serious anomaly. It is an indefensible situation where a 16-year-old can have a termination but is not being facilitated with free contraception.

This is so last minute and rushed we are not in a position to challenge what the Minister has said. We have to take it at face value. The key thing is that this situation is not let lie. We need a very definite timescale. The Minister said he has asked his officials to work on this and that work is already under way, which I welcome. I would like him to give a commitment to come back to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health on this issue before the end of October.

That is a reasonable timescale. I ask the Minister to come back to the committee with proposals on how he will address this anomaly before the end of October. If the Minister is prepared to do that, I am happy to accept his word.

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