Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank my colleagues for the valuable contributions they have made this morning and for putting forward these amendments. However, I agree with Senator Bacik with regard to the restrictions that exist under Article 40.3.3°. When the Minister came to deal with this issue, it was very much about the decision in the X case and in the A, B and C v. Ireland case. All of the public consultation during the six days, three in January and three in May, focused on those cases. The issue is referred to in page 10 of the report dealing with the public hearings in May. There was a discussion on the matter during the public hearings and some valuable contributions were made. I agree that the way the Bill is drafted confines what we can deal with and we must stay within Article 40.3.3°.

The issue of fatal foetal abnormality cannot be left in limbo and we must deal with it at some stage. It is interesting to speak to people in the medical profession involved in this area and to hear about the difficulties they have. People have mentioned the women who travel to England for terminations, but some people cannot afford to go or cannot go because of a medical condition they have. I have spoken to some medical people about the restrictions they face. One practitioner spoke about the difficulties of managing a patient where it is clear there is a fatal foetal abnormality and about the restrictions on that patient. The medical profession also has huge difficulty dealing with this area.

Another area where this difficulty comes into play relates to where a patient is 37 or 38 years of age and wants to have a family. However, on the first pregnancy the foetus is found to have a fatal foetal abnormality. These patients have only a certain time period in which they can try to have a family, but in such a case they are then restricted with regard to this matter being dealt with, although they are anxious to have a child. This issue is coming to the fore in regard to people in that age category and to the reason a mother takes the decision to not go through the pregnancy to full term and chooses to go to the United Kingdom.

There are a number of issues to be dealt with and they cannot be put on the long finger. However, we have made a decision with regard to dealing with this legislation and the issues raised in the X case, which were dealt with at the public consultation. I appeal to those who proposed these amendments to consider how they might frustrate the passage of this legislation, because if it was amended as proposed and subsequently tested, the whole Bill might be turned down and we would be back to where we were in 1992 and would have to start all over again. While I welcome the discussion on this matter, I believe we must deal with the Bill as it is and these amendments must be withdrawn.