Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Cara and her parents. I heard her on the radio this morning and well done to her. She should not have to be making all the efforts she is making but she is doing a great service to children all over the country. They will all be proud of her and I am sure they are cheering her on.

I would like to raise the provision of abortion care. As we all know, it is four years since the vast majority of people in Ireland voted to repeal the eighth amendment and for the provision of abortion care. However, today only one in ten GPs are offering abortion care, in 50% of our counties there are fewer than ten GPs offering abortion care and only 11 out of the 19 maternity hospitals are providing abortion care. This means that women in a distressed situation who are vulnerable have to travel long distances. This is adding to their stress and vulnerability and it is also creating an urban-rural divide. There is a difference between the care potentially provided to a woman in Dublin and a woman in Longford and Carlow, and we all know that is wrong.

To be fair to the Minister for Health, no other Minister for Health has done so much for women's health. Some €31 million is ring-fenced this year alone for women's health, including for the following: the provision of free contraception; free period poverty measures; endometriosis and menopause clinics; and significant capital funding for the Rotunda Hospital in my constituency of Dublin Central.

There has also been the creation, for the first time, of a real and secular national maternity hospital on the site of St. Vincent's University Hospital, which will provide all women with healthcare services, free of any sort of religious interference. It would be helpful for the Leader to write to the CEO of the HSE. We all know the review of the legislation is taking place. When it comes to the operation of the services, we should ask the HSE what actions it is taking to support GPs and our maternity hospitals to ensure that abortion care is freely available to women in every community in our country.