Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----that we fund on behalf of the taxpayers, staff whom we pay and facilities that we support. It is entirely appropriate for me to step up to the plate in ensuring there are free, safe and legal services available for women with a crisis pregnancy. While Senator Mullen and I are on our Christmas holidays, we will not be in crisis with a pregnancy. Our bodies will not be in crisis, God willing, but today three women will take the pill and nine will travel. Twelve terminations will take place every single day in January. It is not beyond this small country to step up to the plate collectively and provide safe services, 80% of which would be provided by our general practitioners, hundreds of whom are signing up saying they are ready and want to provide the services. Fourteen of our maternity hospitals are bringing forward plans to state how they will implement the service. I, as Minister, and the Taoiseach have acknowledged that it will take time to fully embed and integrate our services. We are introducing a new service. Our clinicians are working extremely hard. We have to get this right. It is nearly seven months on from the referendum, with whose result the Senator fundamentally disagrees, which is fine, but the rest of the people, who voted "Yes", did not ask me to bring in services or whether I would mind. They gave me an instruction to do it. To use dismissive language to the effect that the deadline is political is not in order. It does not make any difference to my life whether the service comes into effect in January, February, March, April or May but it makes a hell of a big difference to the lives of Irish women. I am determined we will do it.