Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The long and the short of this is the removal of the word "serious" would create a broadening of the grounds for termination in Ireland. I am not in a position to do that. I do not believe I am mandated to do that.

On Senator Gavan’s point, I am certainly not going to ask anyone to wait three years. I am suggesting we pass the legislation in order that women can access termination in our country. However, as I said in response to Senator Bacik, this is an issue open to anybody to bring forward a Bill at any time. Nobody needs to wait for a statutory three-year review. The purpose of the statutory three-year review is good because it is not actually about reviewing the legislation but the operation of the legislation. It would involve bringing in an external person, possibly from abroad, to look at how it is working, to talk to GPs and obstetricians and to see, overall, if it is achieving what we wanted in terms of access. If I did I apologise but I do not want to conflate the two issues.

I am not sure if Senator Ruane was referring to me, somebody else or other people. Senators, just like Deputies did, can bring forward as many amendments as they want. That is actually their responsibility and duty. As a legislator, I believe we have to balance that responsibly with the idea of making sure we can provide access. I believe we should be providing access as quickly as possible because women are waiting for these services today. There are women who cannot afford or are not able to travel. They will be able to access free, safe and legal termination in this country on a broad range of grounds from the new year when we are finished with this legislation. I fully accept we have to do our jobs, however.

Senator Ruane also referred to the Government. Not wishing to be pedantic but the Government is made up of Fine Gael and Independents. Independents, by their nature, have free votes and the Government does not have a whip on this issue. I come to the House today, guaranteed zero votes regarding this legislation. It should not be viewed through the prism of government versus opposition. There will be Members of my party who will vote against me and Members of Senator Ruane’s grouping who might vote with me. It is not a Government position versus anyone else’s.

There are draft guidelines in place which I understand will be circulated in the coming days.It is entirely appropriate that draft clinical guidelines are written by doctors and not by me. I do not think anyone would want me writing the draft clinical guidelines. I need to say to Senator Kelleher that they are evolving all the time. I was at a meeting of stakeholders this morning, including a number of medics who will be providing this service, and they are inputting and sending back their views and ideas. The guidelines are written by doctors for doctors and I think there is also something iterative in that process. Many of the concerns that people raise, from a clinical point of view, are best dealt with through their clinical guidelines, where they obviously have a role to play.

To respond to Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell, of course the woman has a subjective role in all of this because different women will make different decisions. The Senator is looking at me in a confused or puzzled way, or an unconvinced way.