David Norris (Independent)

I am not claiming total macho credits. As a matter of principle, the rationalisation should be rational and should have full intellectual justification unlike the Government's decentralisation programme, which is really a disintegration programme, in that people were moved inappropriately and some valuable skills were lost. It is important we retain the most significant skills.

I am concerned about some aspects of the Bill. For example, the Drug Treatment Centre Board was mentioned. We all know that cities such as Dublin are on the brink of another heroin epidemic, yet there does not even seem to be enough money to cope with the current situation. The street prices of heroin and other opiates are decreasing. We are in a serious economic crisis and it is inappropriate for people such as me to keep telling the Government that it must spend more money here and cut money somewhere else, but mere economising would worry me.

My colleague, Senator Feeney, referred to the question of people who are mentally ill. She referred to Sebastian Barry's remarkable novel. He started his writing career while he was a tenant in my basement in North Great George's Street. Simultaneously, Anne Enright was a tenant. I believe they both won the Booker Prize. Both the attic and the basement won the Booker Prize and I was the boring bit in the middle.

There is another book that has not been mentioned but which is at least as striking, namely, Bird's Nest Soup, the autobiography of a woman from County Westmeath called Hanna Greally. She was incarcerated because she was perceived as a little bit socially awkward by her family. She was kept in an institution for about 40 years but her human personality remained unfractured. A remarkable young doctor discovered the woman was totally sane and had just been institutionalised for social reasons. That is why I listened with some interest to the coy euphemisms employed by the Minister of State in her speech. She referred to persons who are acutely mentally ill and require admission to hospital but who are "unwilling to travel to hospital voluntarily". That is a very nice euphemistic phrase. The people are probably admitted kicking and screaming, with their foot up against the ambulance door in some cases. We therefore need to be absolutely realistic.

The Minister of State referred to "assisted admissions". I can imagine what the assistance consists of. She referred also to the use, where necessary, of "staff of the approved centre". She mentioned well-known recent proceedings in the High Court pertaining to the case of someone who did not like being "assisted voluntarily" in being admitted. The lady took a case and part of her case, focusing on the legal inadequacy of the admission process, concerned the fact that she was admitted with the assistance of some external agencies, in other words, hired help. I am not impugning these agencies as I am sure they may be very well qualified but the intriguing point was that the judge found in his ruling that the meaning of the term "member of staff" is confined to an individual and that a corporate entity such as an external agency could not be a member of staff. The Minister of State commented that this is a "narrow interpretation" of the term "staff of the approved centre". Narrow my fanny: it is perfectly obvious that the interpretation is correct. Anybody reading that would know perfectly well one cannot just define a franchise as a member of staff. It is not a member of staff and the judge was making a perfectly straightforward and obvious comment. It may be the case that there is room for external agencies but I caution against going too far, for financial reasons, in the direction of franchising and privatisation. The Americans have gone down that road in every area, from medical services to prison administration, with consequences that are not always humane.

It was very interesting that there were 2004 involuntary admissions in 2008, of which 604 were assisted. In other words, 604 of those admitted were resisting so vigorously that they had to be pushed in. We should obtain as much information as possible on this. It is very interesting that a cross-party group has been established on mental health. It met some days ago in the audiovisual room. We should investigate the matter because we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Let me say a few words about the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, which emerged in troubled times after the decision on the X case. It is a very important institution. I said in a previous session of Parliament that I was a tutor in Trinity College for ten years. The university authorities were a bit anxious about me and concerned for the moral welfare of the students, with the result that I never had anything in trousers in my chamber of students. I got a collection of skirts - I got 80 female students, with not one man among them. They obviously believed I was such soiled goods that I would be non-judgmental. Once a year a young woman would come to me with a crisis pregnancy and I was able to tell her of the existence of non-directive counselling agencies. Of probably ten such women, one had an abortion. I am convinced this is because I was able to give the girls information dispassionately and access to a place where the hysteria would be removed, where the appropriate questions would be put to them and where arrangements would be made if they decided to have the child, although there would possibly be emotional consequences. It is essential that there is some advice available before and afterwards. This is really important, regardless of what people believe about abortion, which is always sad. Sometimes it may be the better of two options. It is terribly important that women have treatment, therapy or advice after termination.

I welcome the fact that the Crisis Pregnancy Agency has a non-directive approach. It cannot and does not recommend abortion to clients but can give information. The Minister of State should, for God's sake, maintain this position because it is the best way to reduce the number of abortions. There are puritan ideologues outside and within the Houses who are so extreme in their views on this subject that they would say one should not give out information on abortion. This is foolish and counterproductive because the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to allow people the dignity of having as much information as possible. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency has been able to produce figures showing this is the case.

The agency is mandated to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies and reduce the number of women choosing abortion as an outcome of pregnancy. Nothing is said about condemning abortion. The agency is also mandated to safeguard women's physical and mental health following termination of pregnancy. What progress has been achieved in this regard? There has been a decrease of 30%. This is not just vague waffle from a retired tutor from Trinity College because I refer to a fact, an actual percentage. The reduction is the result of giving information and of being adult and mature. There has been a 20% decrease in the number and rate of births to teenagers and a 43% decrease in the number of teenagers travelling from Ireland to the United Kingdom for an abortion. It is worthwhile pausing to thank the agency. It has done a remarkable service, not just to the women of Ireland but to the population as a whole. I hope the Government will continue to support the agency in every way.

The Crisis Pregnancy Agency has, in these very difficult times, managed to increase its contact hours and services to women, which I very much welcome. The Minister of State, I am sure, is familiar with the kind of brief I have received on the agency. The agency has a number of issues and targets. The targets include achieving better access to information on contraception and contraceptive services for those identified to be at special risk of crisis pregnancy and improving the standards and quality of contraceptive services. It is not just enough for one to have actual contraceptives as one needs to be given information on how precisely to use them. Not providing this information is the reason for the failure of some of them. Proper information, guidance and policies on human sexuality and relationships are required in schools. We have not progressed nearly far enough in this regard.

My briefing note states that the chairperson of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency is Katherine Bulbulia, who was a distinguished Member of this House but who is now no longer directly involved in party politics. It is very heartening to see that somebody of her calibre is chairperson. She was an excellent advocate for women's health in this House, as was my former colleague, Dr. Mary Henry. Ms Bulbulia is continuing her valuable work through this excellent agency. I urge the Minister to ensure the Government continues its support for this work.