Results 3,001-3,020 of 7,648 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I know Senator Norris is the libel king around here.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The malpractice of the counselling agencies in question was tape recorded and was the subject of an article in the Irish Independent. It was also investigated by the Garda.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: Right away. As I have made clear, the obligation is on the doctor to offer the ultrasound. As I said, people who support rational action based on informed consent should be supportive of this amendment. Paternalism occurs in cases where one hears about a screen being turned away so that the woman could not observe or being told that she should not observe. This amendment does not provide...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The Cathaoirleach should at least suspend until we shame the person and find out who it is.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I wish to respond to what the Minister and others have said. The Minister persists in using a term that can only be designed to be emotive, namely, of subjecting the woman to an ultrasound.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The Minister is subjecting the unborn child to death. That is the difference. Every abortion situation involves a conflict of rights. This legislation dispossesses unborn children of the most basic human right, just as we celebrate and mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I refer also to conventions and documents that flowed from that, such as the UN...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: Do they discourage it or do they simply fail to recommend it? If they do discourage it, why do they discourage it? It is not rooted in a perspective on the welfare of the unborn child. The Minister says that he wants abortions to be rare. As he is doing nothing in this legislation to help that to become a reality, frankly I must question the sincerity of that statement. If he really...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: He is doing nothing to support the provision of positive information that could save a life without subtracting from the right to abortion which the legislation rightly or wrongly confers. An ultrasound can only give useful and positive information. Only a radical ideology of choice could cause people to excoriate its usage or discourage the imposition of a requirement on doctors to offer...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: No. I will resubmit this on Report Stage.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 47:In page 15, lines 7 to 9, to delete all words from and including “Subject” in line 7 down to and including “or 12” in line 9 and substitute the following:“A medical practitioner, nurse or midwife shall not be obliged to carry out or to participate in carrying out a termination of pregnancy in accordance with section 9, 11 or 12...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: That is fine. I will be guided by the Cathaoirleach in regard to the procedures of the House.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I certainly will not be taking issue with whatever the Cathaoirleach decides other than that I would have hoped Senators would take on board the amendments and come to a more sober judgment on them, thereby affording them an opportunity to accept them on Report Stage. There will not, by definition, be a similar debate on Report Stage because Senators may speak only once on the issues. I...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The Minister presents it as a reasonable balance but it is not at all reassuring. How could it be when there was so little consultation? The Minister broke the news on radio to GPs that his abortion regime would be GP-led. Before his announcement, he never consulted rank-and-file GPs around the country about turning their surgeries into abortion clinics and forcing them to become...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I understand the Cathaoirleach's position, but forcing decent, hard-working and conscientious healthcare workers to do something they find morally troubling, even abhorrent, crosses a line. They have received their own legal advice and they know the freedom of conscience protections the Minister claims are in the Bill offer no meaningful safeguards. The Minister is putting many healthcare...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I am coming to a conclusion. I am grateful to the Cathaoirleach. As I said yesterday, I want to say what needs to be said, no more and no less, before addressing the points that are raised. That is appropriate on Committee Stage. The time we have spent on this matter is as nothing to the time I have spent on the phone and in meetings with good and ethically minded professionals who are...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: That is the wrong and injustice in this. Senator Wilson referred to the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2010. I know about it because I was there and involved in the debate. I believe he was referring to the debate on what was known as the McCafferty report. It started as an attack on conscientious objection. Much of what we have heard in recent...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I am.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: This does not protect a person from being sanctioned. The legislation does not provide that a person will be sanctioned but it does not protect the person. Senator Reilly mentioned the less powerful people in an organisation, and funnily enough it is those who will come under pressure.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I say this as somebody who cares for those women and the unborn.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: May I finish the sentence, as I was heckled? The first problem is the legislation does not protect the person against being sanctioned from above. The second problem is the requirement for the person to be a cog in a wheel. That is not fair and it will be resisted, peacefully but persistently in future, regardless of whether the amendment is accepted.