Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to get to speak on this topic because it is something I feel very passionate about. I listened to the debate last night and the Minister clarified the situation. I do not believe there is any ambiguity or that there is anything to be fixed.The Minister clearly said last night that terminations are to be regarded as "unavoidable, imperative and time-sensitive". That is the wording used in this exemption. The legislation we are debating is not the same as Senator Gavan's Bill, which we debated a couple of weeks ago in the Chamber. We are specifically debating the hotel quarantine measures. People who have travelled out of the State are not required to hotel quarantine if they travelled for an abortion because it is imperative, unavoidable and time-sensitive.

Last night, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, clearly undertook that this interpretation of the legislation would be communicated to all parties, including airlines. I have spoken to people who have had difficulties over the past couple of months when they came back after receiving terminations. I know the difficulties unvaccinated people have faced over the past couple of months. Luckily, vaccinations are freely and widely available in this country. We have had an enormous uptake of vaccines so the number of unvaccinated people travelling out of the country for a termination and coming back in was very small. I acknowledge it was a very big difficulty for those people, but there is nothing to be fixed or clarified. The Minister clarified this issue last night.

We should not try to stoke up fear or use inflammatory language when we are just trying to get this across the line. Nobody wants to worry women-----