Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The clock has not started yet. I would like to join Senators on all sides of the House, particularly my party's acting leader in this House, Senator MacSharry, in remarking on the independent investigation into practices that have been carried out by people who would be the first to admonish those who might be seen to be breaking the law if they did not agree with their particular point of view. It is important that Senators across the House have contributed on this issue. I am not saying there has been a cross-party contribution. I add my voice to what has been said so far. I cannot help thinking that this is yet another example of a significant group of people in this country deciding to act outside the law, in order to pursue their own ideological commitments, when they find that the law is not exactly as they would like it.

This is a complex issue. I agree with Senator Jim D'Arcy that any woman who is experiencing a crisis pregnancy needs to receive the greatest sympathy and understanding. This is not about those individuals, however. This is about people in authority who receive State funding. They have decided to break the law to advance their own particular opinions surreptitiously. Senator Bradford is absolutely right. The questions he has asked are relevant. Quite frankly, I am not sure the HSE is the best group to be investigating anything.

The Minister for Health or the Minister for Justice and Equality should come to this House to respond to this piece of investigative journalism, for which I applaud the Sunday Independent. As others have said, it is rather surprising that other media outlets have not picked up on this report. I suggest they have not done so because it has come from a particular constituency. If those who are protecting and promoting life were involved, I assure the House that thundering editorials in certain newspapers in this country would admonish people for holding the point of view they have. I fully agree with a view that has been expressed on all sides of this sensitive and complex debate, which is that the law, as it currently stands, is unsustainable.

It is hard to believe that as a consequence of the X case there might be a situation where up-to-term abortions were performed in this country. That has to be addressed. I wished to contribute that point of view and also to emphasise that it is important that either the Minister for Health or the Minister for Justice and Equality attends the House to address this matter and respond to what has been said both in the House today and to the exposé by investigative journalists in the Irish Independent.