Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the visitors in the Gallery. Of course, I do not agree with them or with what they seek but it is politicians who should primarily be held responsible for bringing forward legislation that is neither constitutional nor necessary and for doing so on the basis of claims about decent, harmless people that we already know to be very untrue. It is about honesty. There are deeply held feelings on both sides of the abortion debate. I do not need to rehearse them here. One third of the electorate voted to recognise that an unborn child has a right to life and that this right should be protected by the law and society. That argument was lost, at least as far as numbers are concerned, but that cause will endure and see better days because the true human rights position is that we ought to treasure every human being. Once we single out any section of society and deny them the protection of the law and the care of society, we are on a very bad road and, sadly, others will suffer in due course.

With regard to this Bill, I will not rehearse what I said on Second Stage but there are serious questions about its constitutionality.If it were passed it would diminish the fundamental rights and freedoms of a particular group of Irish citizens, namely people who want to witness to the welfare of the unborn and to offer help to those who might be changing their mind and may be in doubt about whether they want to have an abortion, and to offer that help, if asked for it, in a respectful and decent way.

When this Bill was introduced last November, I pointed to the statement made by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in which he confirmed that existing public order legislation was satisfactory to deal with any incidents related to protests, should they arise. The Commissioner also placed on record at the time that protests outside facilities where abortions are carried out had not contravened the law and were peaceful. There is nothing to suggest that the situation has changed since the Commissioner wrote to the then Minister for Health in 2019. There is, in fact, more evidence that such witnessing, as has been going on, is a relatively small amount from everything I am told. People have busy lives and it is quite a sacrifice to give of one's time to witness peacefully to the dignity and welfare of mothers and babies outside facilities where abortions may or may not be taking place at a given time.

I have met members of the pro-life movement who are dismayed and upset at the unfair way people like them are misrepresented and depicted, particularly when politicians and certain sections of the media seek to besmirch and sully their good names. It is important to put on record their concerns particularly in the light of what the Minister has just said. They would argue the motivation behind Bills like this has nothing to do with ensuring access to facilities to avail of services that are now legal. It has everything to do with silencing any dissent around abortion, and it has everything to do with trying to create a false and misleading impression of the pro-life movement in order to strengthen that case. Sadly, it seems to be that when it comes to pushing the case, whether it is activists, politicians or a Government Minister, the truth about what is actually going on does not seem to matter.

I listened to the Minister's very well-worded speech. It was incorrect for the Minister to suggest that there is support all across the House for this Bill, which I believe are the words the Minister used. The Minister must have known that there was at least one person in the Chamber who thinks this is seriously violative of human rights and human dignity, and it speaks to the Minister's carelessness around language. What struck me was the amount of taxpayers' money that must go into the Minister preparing a convoluted argument in order to be seen to be fully on board with everything that the movement for abortion rights demands. I believe this is a terrible dereliction of the Minister's duty as the Minister for Health. I believe that the Minister has a higher duty to represent all citizens not just those who have different views about abortion, but also those who would expect that the Minister would only spend time advancing legislation that is constitutional, those who would expect the Minister to come in with a full grasp of the picture of what actually happens in relation to those small number of cases where people are witness to the rights of the unborn in circumstances where they are near facilities for such procedures as violate and deny those rights take place from time to time.

When the Bill was first introduced in November, part of the justification cited for its introduction was supposedly intimidatory protests outside abortion facilities in Limerick city instigated, it was claimed, by abortion opponents. My colleague, with whom I get on with very well personally, Senator Gavan, repeated that allegation and more today when he talked about people targeting other people who are going into facilities to access abortion. Everything he says, and everything behind this Sinn Féin Bill is designed to suggest that there are some very unpleasant people out there doing some very unpleasant things. In fact, we are talking about decent people. One of them - and I am not referring to Limerick in particular - I know to be a relative of a Government Minister. They are democrats and, in many cases, are religious people. I do not make religious arguments around abortion generally because I believe it is a human rights issue for people of all faiths and none. There are many, however, who invoke the power of prayer in private, quiet and discreet ways, to hope for a better outcome. Those quiet and mainly elderly people, who hardly raise their voices, are being portrayed here as menacing and targeting types.

I must say to Senator Gavan that it is one thing to say that on the basis of information he believes to be correct, but one month after the Senator said what he said in December 2021, the University of Limerick Hospitals Group issued a public statement confirming that they had received no complaints about protests outside the hospital. The hospital spokesperson acknowledged that they were "satisfied that there is no issue with regard to safety of access at University Maternity Hospital Limerick". It was not just the Garda Commissioner, it was also the Limerick hospital. I would have expected then that Senator Gavan would correct the record, but I recall no effort being made to correct the record by Senator Gavan or others who disseminated the false and unfounded allegations against, let us call them, the pro-life supporters in the first instance. I wonder if this is because it suits a political agenda to allow a lie to go halfway around the world because the truth will still not have its boots on?

When I hear further claims being made, suggestive of some kind of collusion, and suggesting that people's personal data is somehow being leaked to those who have concerns about abortions, I am inclined to disbelieve the people who make those claims. I would urge any responsible politician to say "let us see the evidence". We already know of one lie that was told and that was used in this case by a Sinn Féin Senator to advance the legislation at an earlier date. How do I know, or how does any decent citizen know, that we are not being told another lie, and that Senator Gavan either wilfully or naïvely is, as it were, colluding? This is a word that Sinn Féin members understand.