David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that No. 2 on the Order Paper, the Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill, will be taken this week. It will seek to cover medical practitioners who have no insurance, and thereby protect patients. I welcome this but it should be put on the record that this is, in essence, Senator Colm Burke's Bill. His was an exceptionally good Bill from the Government's side of the House and there is no reason that the Government should not have accepted it at the time and, as I said then, amended it in the process if there were areas with which it disagreed. For that reason I tabled a similar Bill, but I withdrew it when I heard the Government intended to introduce such legislation speedily. However, credit should be given to this House and to Senator Colm Burke, who initiated this.

With regard to the question of abortion, I was taken aback by the provisions of the Government's legislation because they specifically excluded fatal foetal abnormality and rape. During the hearings held in this House we were assured that suicidal intention, or to use that revoltingly unattractive phrase, "suicidal ideation", was so rare as to be absolutely negligible, at only one in half a million or a million. Next thing, one had landed on our plate, so it was necessary to consider it. I note with satisfaction that recent opinion polls have shown that a majority of the Irish people, 56%, now strongly support allowing women to have an abortion in cases of rape or fatal foetal abnormality. The Government should take note of what the voters are saying, not focus groups, conservative backbenchers and certainly not the so-called, self-styled Iona Institute.