David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

Never have I seen a debate where the Ministers' speeches were so far removed from the reality of women and their experiences. I watched as women in the Public Gallery got very angry when they listened to the Ministers' speeches. Many of them were in tears, and rightly so. For so long, these women have felt ignored and dismissed. I wager that they feel ignored and dismissed by the Minister's responses this evening. The Minister said in her opening statement that women are cared for at the most appropriate level of intervention, beginning at primary care by GPs and then in local hospital care and on to specialist hospital care. The reality is that, for the vast majority of women, primary care and local GPs are not the best option. In fact, that is where many of them were failed. The Minister did not say anywhere in her speech that local hospitals have also failed. I do not blame the staff in those hospitals because they simply have not been trained. Women have had bad experiences where they have gone to hospitals.

The Minister talked about specialist hospital care. For the women we talked to, specialist hospital care does not exist. The Minister said that some women may choose to avail of private treatment abroad.

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