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

The Government considered the report earlier today. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, will publish it tomorrow and people will have a chance to read it then. He has referred it to the Joint Committee on Health for its advice and deliberations. It will be up to the committee to decide how long it takes to do that. Obviously, it is an all-party committee.

On operational recommendations that show gaps in the service, we are going to act on them right away. These are being referred to the HSE for implementation. There are 400 GP practices that provide abortion services in Ireland. That is not a small number. More than 8,000 abortions were performed in Ireland last year, which is not a small number either. There are some gaps in some regions, however, and we need to encourage GPs those regions to provide the service. The HSE will be working on that.

There are 19 hospitals in Ireland that provide obstetric and gynaecological services.

Only 11 provide surgical terminations. That is not good enough. I agree with the Deputy about that. A programme is being put in place to ensure that, by the end of this year if not early next year, all 19 will provide the service.

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