Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many members of staff in the midwifery section of Letterkenny General Hospital and many other hospitals have conscientious objections and are highly concerned about the introduction of this legislation. Like midwifery staff, pharmacists, who have been mentioned during this debate, have raised their conscientious objection to the provision of the services they will be expected to provide under this Bill. It is alarming that the Minister does not appear to be willing to concede to meet the doctors, midwifery staff and pharmacists who are advocating for conscientious objection to discuss these issues with them. I know for a fact that the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland wrote to the Minister about the conscientious objection issue recently. The Irish Pharmacy Union wrote to the Minister to outline its grave concerns about the same issue on 28 February last. These concerns have not been addressed. The code of conduct of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, which has been referred to as a way of protecting pharmacists, does not refer to conscientious objection or freedom of conscience, religion or belief. It is worth noting that Principle 4 of the current code of conduct was updated earlier this year. It was completely rewritten in a way that allows the patient to have the choice and removes the choice from the pharmacists. The pharmacists are being left in a situation where they do not have a conscientious objection under their own code. They have no protection under the legislation. The code was rewritten quite recently. They have articulated this in writing to the Minister.

The conscientious objection we have outlined is available in other jurisdictions. It should be available here. It is a reasonable request. It does not in any way dilute the effectiveness of the Minister's Bill from his point of view. It provides a way out to people who have a religious, humanitarian or moral conscientious objection. They should not be forced to partake in a practice about which they have such strong feelings of objection. It would be wrong to force them to do so. The Bill does not provide for conscientious objection. It relies on codes of conduct elsewhere. Conscientious objection is enshrined in the legislation in the UK and in New Zealand and it should be enshrined in this Bill as the only way to protect GPs. There are GPs who do not have a conscientious objection, and that is fine, but there are many GPs who do have a conscientious objection. There are hundreds of them up and down the country. They deserve the same respect. If we are talking about choice, then they should have a choice as well. One cannot level choice one day, and then the next day remove the choice. If one wants to purport that this is all about choice, one must accept that choice is a two-way street. If it is all about choice, so be it. That is great, but pharmacists, midwives and doctors must be given the same choice and respect. Choice must be reciprocated. That is what these amendments are about.