Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Reading the report of the young woman who lost her life in Galway hospital, I am deeply disturbed. It is a huge trauma to be visited upon a family and it is a tragedy. We should not make judgments or assessments until we have the full facts to hand. We do not know where that failure arose and we need to establish where failure was. The people of Ireland voted that the life of the mother was of equal value to the life of the child. Let us have the report discussed in the Chamber.

The Minister for Health received the report of the expert group last night. The Government must give an indication of its intentions to the Council of Europe by 30 November. Much will happen in this area in the next month. We need to think that when we are making decisions in the House, we are making decisions about the life of the mother and the life of the child. Let us proceed calmly and not try to score points on either side.

Following the comments of Senator Conway, I agree the Government should be prepared to take the bankers to court. The banks were bailed out by the taxpayer but not with the intention of shoring up the pensions of bankers who bankrupted the country. If we fail there, we should have the courage to take a constitutional amendment on the issue. On that notion, there will be more than a 32% turnout because that is how strongly the Irish people feel about it.