Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for his response yesterday on the Order of Business. I was invited to table an Adjournment matter about the promise the Taoiseach gave regarding core funding for Galway hospice and support for its expansion. I will do so but will the Leader use his good offices as well? That was a particularly sensitive promise that needs to be kept. I ask senior people in the main Government party to bring up the issue with the Taoiseach. I acknowledge Castlebar and Roscommon also have important claims regarding hospice care and I support them as well. However, there was something particular about what the Taoiseach said to the late John Cunningham, which ought to be acted on.

I raised the issue of opinion polls in the context of a poll on abortion some time back and I asked for a debate. I concluded my remarks by saying that when the question is asked whether people support current medical practice provided that all necessary medical interventions to protect women's lives are there, there is support for that. That has been confirmed and I draw the House's attention to that. A reputable company, Millward Brown, carried out a poll for the pro-life campaign and found 66% support for protection and safeguarding in law of the current practice of treating expectant mothers and their babies as two patients and doing the best to safeguard both in crisis situations and 63% support for the constitutional protection for the unborn, which prohibits abortion but allows the continuation of the existing practice of intervention to save a mother's life in accordance with medical ethics. That is very encouraging and it points up the importance of asking the correct question that identifies the issues clearly in a non-emotive way. People are often confronted with hard questions about difficult cases that are traumatising for everybody but when they are asked whether they favour the good medical practice we currently have - our great two-patient model - they support it. We have seen that in the latest poll and that is food for thought for the Government as it contemplates bringing in legislation.