Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Stop the clock. I am just waiting for them to leave. The "RTÉ Investigates" programme about our abortion services that aired last night was harrowing. It was also infuriating because everybody in this Chamber is already aware of all of the problems with these services. The Government has been sitting on the expert report that pointed out these problems for 12 months. Instead of action, we have had a game of political pass-the-parcel. The expert report was kicked to the health committee before being kicked back to the Government, where it has been since December. Last night, we saw clearly the people who are paying the price for that inaction, namely, women across the State who are traumatised, stigmatised and penalised. The Taoiseach has previously spoken about how he came to support repeal. He said one reason was a briefing he attended by the group Terminations for Medical Reasons. These are women and their partners who received a devastating diagnosis of foetal abnormality and were forced to leave the country for a termination. The Taoiseach stated, "I have never before left a briefing so moved by it ... I was really ashamed at how these people were treated", That quote is seven years old. Despite the repeal vote, nothing has changed for these women. Irish law still forces them abroad for care because often doctors either cannot definitively say complex foetal abnormalities will lead to death within 21 days of birth, as the law demands, or they interpret the law conservatively because of the threat of criminal sanction, that is, up to 14 years of a prison sentence. The result is devastated women like Alison Gibney, who are forced to travel at the most traumatic time of their lives. Then, heartbroken, they are forced to smuggle their much-loved stillborn baby back into the country, as she said, hidden underneath coats in the boot of her car. Or women like Allison Lynch and Christine Monaghan who were forced to leave their stillborn babies in the UK and travel back without them. Why are we allowing this terrible suffering to continue? We are the legislators. We are the only ones with the power to change this. We have a duty to do it. The Taoiseach was the Minister for Health when we had the repeal vote. As Taoiseach, he can take the advice of his own expert report and reform the law before more women and families experience even more trauma. I recognise the importance of operational reform and that more maternity hospitals are now providing the abortion services but I am asking him about something else today.

In his reply, I ask him to specifically answer these three questions. Will the Government remove the mandatory three-day waiting period, end the criminalisation of healthcare workers and provide more clarity when it comes to providing abortion in cases of foetal abnormalities?

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