David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his contribution. Women deserve safe and unhindered access to lawful services. This Bill is an important step towards providing that access and for that reason, we will fully support the Bill.

The Government has been slow in bringing forward this legislation. It has been apparent for many years that this legislation was needed and thanks to the tireless advocacy of many women, it is finally happening. I will caveat that assertion by saying that I accept the complexity involved in this legislation and that legal advice was needed from the Attorney General and others. I am not for one second suggesting this was easy because we discussed the matter in much detail on pre-legislative scrutiny and I appreciate the complexity involved.

I commend Sinn Féin Seanadóir Paul Gavan, who was the primary sponsor of a similar safe access zones Bill, which was drafted with Together for Safety. It passed every Stage in the Seanad. I thank Together for Safety and progressive Senators for their advocacy to keep this issue on the agenda.

In 2018, people voted for women to have access to services. Five years on, those services are still not properly or fully in place. Women should be able to access the services that were voted for and should feel safe when doing so. This Bill will address some of the concerns that have hindered the development of accessible termination of pregnancies but not all. The independent review highlighted significant geographical barriers to services, the underdevelopment of regional services and other barriers, such as the three-day wait. We want those issues to be addressed in a systematic way and we need to see a clear plan from the Government on how it will progress those recommendations. I hope this measure will diminish barriers which are preventing GPs from providing services by reducing the likelihood of protests but we know that GPs will need more than this to begin providing better access to services.

There are, however, some issues remaining with the Bill, particularly around enforceability. I would prefer to see a clear, practical and effective system of recording prior warnings included in the Bill. As it stands, it is unclear if warnings will carry over to different locations or if the Garda will be equipped to enable a tracking of warnings issued under this legislation. That means that a person can receive a warning at multiple locations without committing an offence which would undermine the purpose of the Bill. I would ask the Minister to work with the Garda, the Minister for Justice and the Opposition before Committee Stage to bring an effective agreed amendment forward which will ensure the enforceability of this legislation. In saying that, I am fully aware of the difficulties and the legal challenges that all of that entails but it is something that needs to be corrected on Committee Stage.

The Bill would create a 100 m safe access zone around any healthcare premises where termination of pregnancy services may be provided such as a GP or obstetrician's clinic or an acute hospital. Section 2 of the Bill prohibits certain conduct in safe access zones. It forbids a person from obstructing or impeding access to a relevant premises for people availing of or providing termination of pregnancy services; communicating material or otherwise engaging in conduct that is likely to influence the decision of another person in availing of or providing termination services, with intent to influence the decision of a person who may be availing of or providing services; engaging in conduct that is likely to threaten or intimidate a person who is accessing or attempting to access a relevant healthcare premises, or accompany, follow or repeatedly approach a person attempting to access said premises, with intent to influence the decision of such a person; and taking photos or videos of people attempting to access the relevant premises. These actions are also forbidden where a person is being reckless as to whether he or she influences or intimidates a person.

Section 3 of the Bill sets out exceptions to the prohibited conduct in section 2. There is misinformation coming from some sources in relation to the intention of this Bill and it is important for all of us to clarify what this Bill does but also what this Bill does not do.

Importantly, the Bill is clear that it would not ban protest within 100 m of the Houses of the Oireachtas once it is not directed at a relevant healthcare premises or people accessing such a premise, and it does not prohibit otherwise lawful conduct occurring within a place of worship. The Bill strikes a balance between the rights of women to access services and the rights of others to have their views and opinions and to exercise those views and opinions in a way that does not interfere with the rights of women to access services. I respect that people have different opinions on this issue and there are deeply-held opinions, but I genuinely believe that this Bill strikes that balance where people, of course, can protest and can make those feelings known in a way that is appropriate but there should be no intimidation of women who are accessing service.

Under section 4, the Garda may issue a warning to any individual it believes is engaged, has engaged or will engage in prohibited conduct, which shall include a direction to cease. Section 4 establishes that, where a person receives a warning under that section relating to prohibited conduct yet continues to engage in that activity, he or she is committing an offence. It provides that where a garda believes a person has committed or is committing an offence under the Act, the garda may arrest that person. The Bill provides the Garda with discretion on whether and when to use these new powers and makes it clear that all existing powers will continue to be open to the Garda as appropriate. All of those are healthy balances which are being struck in the context of this Bill.

Section 5 of the Bill sets out offences and penalties. Section 5 establishes that it would only be an offence to engage in any prohibited conduct as set out in sections 2(1) to (4), inclusive, following a section 4 warning issued by a Garda. Section 5 creates an offence where a person fails or refuses to provide his or her name and address to the Garda when he or she is being issued a warning as set out in section 4. It also creates an offence where a person provides a false or misleading name or address.

The penalties for offences are set out in section 5(3). The Bill sets out a tiered approach to penalties. The Bill sets the penalty for a first offence as a Class E fine, which would be a fine of up to €500, or a month imprisonment, or both. For a second offence, it is a Class D fine, a fine of up to €1,000, or up to three months imprisonment, or both. For a third or subsequent offence, the penalty is a Class C fine of up to €2,500 or up to six months imprisonment, or both.

The Bill, in the round, is well-balanced legislation following months of work by the Department and Committee on Health and, indeed, the Minister for Health, to get this right. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are concerns about the enforceability of the Bill, as drafted, without specific provision for how the Garda will record warnings and whether it will be able to track warnings across different locations.

According to Garda testimony when the Bill was undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny, the Garda does not have an appropriate facility for recording the warnings as set out in the Bill. That is a major concern for the effectiveness of the Bill and the enforceability of safe access zones. As a consequence, a person may receive a warning at multiple locations, as I said earlier, without the Garda being aware of prior warnings, thus escaping penalties for repeated breaches of the Act. To complete this legislation, we need a clear, practical and effective system of recording prior warnings included in the Bill with a guarantee that prior warnings will be counted where a person commits an offence at a specific location.

I want to address the other ongoing difficulties which women face when attempting to access lawful abortion services. The Minister mentioned some of them. There is a clear regional disparity and inequality in service provision. The independent review identified the south east, where I come from, the north west, the midlands and Border counties as particularly under-served by primary care abortion services. There are also several maternity hospitals which are not yet providing full and accessible services. There needs to be real engagement with service providers and the report sets out some commonsense steps that should be taken. Services need to be mapped, and the longest travel distances need to be identified. A geospatial analysis of services is recommended and this makes perfect sense.

The Government needs to identify clearly where there are significant service gaps and put in place local and regional solutions for that. The idea of centralising some services in community-based regional or sub-regional women's health centres would allow us to bring together doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals to provide services in areas where localised service provision is unviable or unsupported. It is important that these centres remain distinct from maternity hospitals, and should focus on care which can be delivered outside of an acute hospital setting. They could provide a range of services for women’s healthcare which can be provided in the community, from medical terminations to access to hormone replacement therapy, HRT, health check-ups and menopause supports. What is clear from experience is that tinkering around the edges on this issue will not suddenly deliver enough consultants to deliver the full services.

We are not training or recruiting enough doctors and this all comes back to workforce planning. We need the Government to implement urgently a long-term workforce plan to train, recruit and retain the healthcare professionals that we need. We also need the Government to undertake the geospatial mapping of existing services, identify the deficits and deploy regional solutions to address service gaps and support those who are providing the service.

I warmly welcome this Bill as a step forward in making sure that we have fit-for-purpose abortion services for the women of this country but, as the Minister I hope would appreciate, a lot more still needs to be done.

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