Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State.

I am interested in this debate because of the genesis of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. It was one of the exceptional success stories to emerge from the debate and analysis of the abortion issue. The objective of reducing the number of pregnancies and hence abortions, as one follows the other, is a fine one, and the agency's other objectives, as laid out in its strategy, are very important. However, we must understand the impact of unplanned or crisis pregnancies as we tend to forget about that. Understanding that impact helps to inform the programmes we put in place, as it affects all age groups.

I will focus on younger girls who become pregnant. As Senator Henry said, for some teenagers pregnancy is not a crisis. They are thinking of nine months and then a tiny smiling baby, but they do not see the next 18 to 24 years of responsibility for that child. They do not think of the possible life of poverty and the lack of opportunities to get out of that poverty. What is really sad is that the person, boy or man, who gets them pregnant has run off and gone. He is not paying for the child, nor is he caring for the child 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We must look at those areas and realise there is a responsibility on all sides.

We must educate society on the responsibilities of men in particular. Every time they have unprotected sex they are putting themselves in a situation where they are creating children, and that is not good enough. We must get that responsibility across to people so that those aged 14 to 16 are thinking about the consequences of their actions when in discos late at night.

Crisis pregnancies probably do not result from reported rapes because the girl can be brought to a hospital or doctor for emergency contraception, which hopefully works. However, we must look at the subject of rape. I know of a recent case in which a girl of 15 was raped at 10 p.m. in a small country town. She did not report the rape until it was too late because she could neither talk about being raped nor deal with the stigma. What is going on in our society? That is not good enough. We need to give the message that rape is not acceptable. Five young men abused a lady in Limerick, if one could call them men; I could use another word beginning with "b". Those young men should be castrated. It is as simple as that. The abuse involved in that situation was absolutely disgraceful. Reports referred to it as a gang rape but it was not a gang rape. The woman was subjected to rape five times, one after the other. As Senator Feeney said to me earlier, if she had been murdered her life would have been taken away from her. She was not murdered but her life has still been taken away from her. What punishment will those men receive? Those issues also need to be considered in addressing crisis pregnancy.

The strategy also outlines the need to educate people about contraception, particularly its availability and cost. Those factors affect whether people use contraception or not. As chairman of the Western Health Board I am proud that in coming weeks the board will publish a guide on contraception which I hope will become widely available in the region. The guide needs to be simple. I have some facts about pregnancy here but to spare my listeners' blushes I will not read them all out. Some people still believe that women will not get pregnant if they are having sex for the first time or if they are breastfeeding. There are clear guides available from some health boards but they should be available throughout the country. Those guides should state the times women can get pregnant or when one needs contraception. They should be in understandable English, not in the medical speak sometimes used by doctors and nurses.

A submission on abstinence was made to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution's hearings on abortion and we need to talk more about that. I have daughters and I do not want to think of them or my son having sex at 14, 15 or 16 years of age. It is not right because they are not old enough and we must educate them with programmes for young people. We must educate parents to tell them it is acceptable to talk about this matter because if we are not talking about it we are not addressing the issue. If we do not give young people the confidence to discuss the issue it will not be okay for them to stand up to peer pressure by saying they do not want to have sex at 14, 15 or 16 years. We need to get rid of that peer pressure for males and females. Senator Henry is correct. We must not be afraid to point out to people that it is acceptable to wait until they are ready and that the older they are before having sex the better they can deal with it. There will also be fewer consequences in terms of crisis pregnancies. That is not a matter of having sex before or after marriage.

Cultural change has been mentioned and that is a very ambitious part of the strategy. I compliment the agency on addressing this as a key issue and while it is an ambitious, long-term objective, we need to talk about it. There were approximately 80 adoptions last year of Irish children born in this country. It is very sad that that is the number that was available for adoption. We should do something about adoption. People should find it easier to consider adoption as an option when they become pregnant, particularly if it is an unplanned pregnancy or one they particularly do not want.

Another submission to the all-party committee referred to the image of motherhood. How can we attach value to being a mother? How can we make it seem like one of the most important roles in society? That is part of the cultural change we must undertake.

Let us please try to make sure that we do not always treat an unplanned pregnancy as a crisis. This is not always the case; it may be an opportunity. We need to work on promoting the value of motherhood and to instigate a long-term campaign on this matter. We can examine models for this in the United States where it has already taken place.

Staff from the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, which is doing a great job, are in the Visitors Gallery. A set of objectives was given to them and a budget within which to work. Every organisation can do with more money and the Government is committed to continue funding in a three year programme. We have a great blueprint and a guide for policy makers. The challenge for us as a society, as a Government and, as legislators, is to implement the blueprint, review it and ensure that change will be implemented if required.