Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I would very much like to support this amendment but, unfortunately, I am not able to do so. It is a very well-thought-out amendment and it is something to which we will have to return.

With regard to the amendment on rape and incest, I am very much of the view that this country has moved on. It is a pity that many of the representations we have received have come from a particular group of people. I know this point has been made by other Senators but I would very much like to know how they are funded, how they managed to run the campaign they ran and from where their money is coming. We spent hours in this Chamber making it impossible for somebody in political life to receive a donation of more than €100 without having to go through every hoop known to man, yet other organisations can spend millions of euro on campaigns.

I will like to repeat a statistic I gave on Second Stage. More than 120,000 Irish women have had abortions since the 1983 constitutional amendment. If one takes that statistic and looks around this Chamber - I am not looking at the women or at the men - at least one in ten people in this Chamber has had an abortion, has a partner who has had one or has a daughter who has had one. That is the bottom line. It is time we moved on. Why do we not stick to what is in front of us, namely, this legislation?