Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that we have passed this Bill. I want to address the comment made earlier that we are looking at a hegemony here: we are not. People do have different views regarding a large number of issues. I also draw Members' attention to the fact that Deputy Neasa Hourigan and I wrote to the women's caucus back in September looking for progress on the Government's safe access zones Bill, because that is a core part of our programme for Government. It is a key commitment for us in the Green Party but I am aware it is a key commitment across Government. When we brought this letter forward to the women's caucus, while there were women with a variety of views on abortion it was interesting that everyone agreed on safe access zones. We do not want our hospitals to be battlegrounds. That is fundamentally what this is about.

In all of the contributions where dangerous language is being used around fascism and all of those things it shows that this is exactly what can happen when one does not have safe access zones. We have seen it in the US. We need to stop and ensure that our society does not turn into that. People have had their say, we had a referendum in 2018, and regardless of what one's views are on that, I believe that we are united, certainly across Government, when it comes to safe access zones, and across the majority of the Opposition.

This is something we have all worked on together. I commend Senators Gavan and Moynihan for their work, and also to the activists who are here today. I feel very passionately that we need an update on where the Government is on this. I have asked the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for this previously and now I also ask, respectfully, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for an update.