Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to Senator Moynihan for raising this matter during debate on the Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021 just a month ago. It is a little unfair on the Minister of State because she was not in the seat that evening. I also accept that it is a little unfair that the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, is not here to defend himself. However, I cannot describe how frustrated I was when I gave him the opportunity to give an answer on the matter. I was happy to cede my time to allow him to clarify this point. He said he would have to come back to me. As Senator Moynihan has said, people have been seeking clarity on this point for months. The fact of the matter is that the Minister did not come back to us.

Senator Moynihan has spelled out the facts far better than I ever could. This is an issue. It is a real problem for women travelling and trying to travel home. It has not been addressed. I am genuinely disappointed and a little shocked that the Government did not take the opportunity to do this last night. We cannot fix that but we do have an opportunity to fix the issue here. There is a great tradition in the Seanad of, from time to time, putting our political badges to one side, recognising the common good and coming together to do the right thing. We did that with the Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill just last month. We should do it again now. The reason we should do that here now - and I have to be very direct here - is that I do not believe the Minister has dealt with this issue. I am trying to be reasonable but we know he has not. It is a massive problem. We have heard from civil society groups and we have heard the figures. We need to deal with this because it is the right thing to do. I suggest we all do that now.