Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have to bear that in mind. If we do a line-by-line comparison with the proposals in the Bill and the recommendations in the report, the Bill before us does not reflect the recommendations in the report.

The Committee on Health is the appropriate place to put this. Various members of the committee have raised questions about this. I am surprised at that. It was an Oireachtas committee that came up with the termination of pregnancy report. The health committee has dealt with surrogacy very well. It is dealing with safe access zones very well. It is exactly the right place for this to go.

I know I am out of time. I will reiterate one important thing. Regardless of any proposed legislative change or changing the parameters within which termination services are provided, which is a lot of the debate we are having, it is my absolute determination that we will continue to roll out the services as they exist under the current Act because that has not yet been done to the extent that it needs to be. By the end of this year, we are working towards moving from 11 to 17 of the 19 hospitals providing services, which will be a very significant improvement. Regardless of any proposed legislative changes, I will work very closely with the HSE and healthcare providers to increase the number of GPs providing abortion services in particular, as colleagues have quite rightly said, in the parts of the country where there is very sparse coverage.

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