Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak to this section. My question is prompted by the meaning of a part of the section. I listened very carefully to what Senator Boylan had to say about listening to women. I agree 100% that we must never tire of listening to people on all sides of this issue and to people who have had personal experiences. I am certainly open to that, and I can understand that people might feel intimidated by the very presence of a person whom they know to have a different view. That is a problematic thing in a democracy and something we need to think about very carefully. We need to think carefully about the extent to which we silence disagreement in such situations. What prompts that comment is a certain passage in the Bill. I am very open to being assisted by Senator Gavan on this, although obviously I oppose this Bill and will vote against this section anyway. I am asking about section 3, which states:

(1) While in a safe access zone established under section 2of this Act, a person must not: (a) express or demonstrate support for or opposition to a person's decision to access ... or facilitate the provision of termination of pregnancy services or contraceptive services;

I ask that I be corrected if I am mistaken. There may be something else in Senator Gavan's Bill that would prevent such an outcome, but if you are, let us say, sitting in a coffee shop and having a conversation with a person and that person discloses in the course of that conversation that he or she works across the road in the hospital and is sometimes involved in abortions in some way, and if you then say, "Gosh, I am very sorry to hear that; I do not believe abortion is right", would you be in breach of the legislation? On my reading of it, you would be in breach of the legislation. That is why I ask the question. How can the Minister come in here and - if I am right - not comment in detail about ramifications such as that, or are we in some kind of parallel universe? I have noticed this only now, so I am completely open to being told that is not the meaning of the section. As far as I can see, however, if someone is within the zone and not there for any organised purpose or to witness, as I said, the dignity of the unborn or anything like that but happens to end up in conversation with somebody who might be involved in providing abortions, and if that person happens to express a view on the matter, perhaps in a coffee shop, perhaps to somebody he or she knows or an acquaintance of somebody he or she knows, that person might be in trouble under this legislation. I would be very grateful for the Senator's assistance on that.