Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is my second time speaking on this Bill and the third time the Bill has been before the Dáil. It has been shunted around the schedule. I acknowledge that the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is here. I appreciate that. I also take this opportunity to thank Together for Safety and my comrade in the Seanad, Senator Paul Gavan, who has been working on a similar safe access zones Bill that he drafted with Together for Safety in order to ensure that this matter stays in the public consciousness.

We repealed the eighth amendment. Women must be able to avail of abortion services as conveniently, particularly from a geographical point of view, as possible without strangers who should have no say in their lives and choices accosting them by insult or, more arrogantly, by prayer. To the men's prayer groups that are obstructing women's access to abortion care by prayer, I say that generations of women have spent long enough on their knees. We are up off them now. I recommend to these men that they get off their knees as well, get out of women's lives and stay out of them. If they will not listen to me, they might listen to Jesus, who told them in the gospels that if someone does not want to be a hypocrite, he or she should say his or her prayers at home. I recommend that these men go home, say their prayers and mind their own business.

It is a concern that swathes of the State are still without abortion services. I would like the Government to have gone further with the Bill. I believe fervently in the right to protest but decency must come into this. Nobody should be the subject of a protest when they are just going around and receiving whatever medical treatment they need. It is also a worry that while An Garda Síochána can make an arrest without warrant where they believe an offence has being committed in terms of this Bill, it also says it does not have an appropriate facility for recording offences. In effect, a person can have warnings at several locations if they are protesting but if these are not recorded, what action can follow? Will the Minister address that when he is replying? The Bill must be stronger in this recording regard because the practice is as important as the principle here.

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