Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is always good to see the Minister of State. Having said that I must express my disappointment that nobody from the Department of Health was available today. This is the second time the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has declined an invitation to the House to talk to me about an important issue. Whether he is dealing with an important matter of the State or whether he is washing his hair, I do hope his afternoon is going well.

I want to talk to the Minister of State about the safe access zones Bill that has been-long promised but which we have yet to see delivered to either House of the Oireachtas. I will provide a little bit of a backdrop. In May 2021, I tabled a Commencement matter on this topic and the then Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, came to the House and said that the view of the Department was that we did not need a safe access zones Bill and that the legislation was bedding down nicely. This was quite a shocking statement to make considering what was happening outside several hospitals, with protesters trying to intimidate women seeking a termination.

Thanks to the Together for Safety group, I was privileged to introduce a safe access zones Bill later in 2021, which the Minister of State will know has passed all Stages in the Seanad. During a debate on that Bill, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, asked me if I was willing to work with the Government to help pass his Bill and I said "Yes". He assured me, as only he can, that we would have a Bill introduced no later than March 2022. One year later, and almost three years after the pledge in the programme for Government, we are still waiting. I attended a private meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health in March 2022 and no one from the Department who attended that meeting could tell me anything about when we would see the Bill.

I am glad to say the situation has moved on. We saw the heads of Bill published last autumn. I attended another meeting of the Joint Committee on Health in January, and it was clear the Department has been doing good work in trying to progress the Bill. However, it still could not give an indication as to when the Bill would be ready to be introduced in the Dáil or Seanad. When I asked Department staff what the outstanding issues regarding the Bill that needed to be finalised were, of the issues listed they highlighted Garda warnings and specifically whether there would be a requirement to include temporal and geographical limits on those warnings. There was also the question around the interaction between warnings and criminal law, and I was assured the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to the Government, OPC, was looking at that. The other issue was the delineation of zones and, again, I was reassured that "good progress" was being made on this. Finally, I was told there were some small outstanding issues about Garda powers.

We were assured the OPC was already working on this issue. Therefore, I hope the Minister of State will give a meaningful update as regards where the last few issues are at, as it is more than two months since that update. We were told at that meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, "We are most of the way there with this". Therefore, I am hopeful that nearly three years into the life of this Government, I will finally be given a date as to when the Bill will be published. I do not need to tell the Minister of State how urgent it is when one considers the fact that only one in ten GPs have signed up to offer abortion services. We know, and the Department has acknowledged, that intimidation from these protests is a major factor in that regard.

I have another brief question on a related matter and I think the Minister of State will appreciate it. She may be aware that the repeal review report, by Marie O'Shea, has been with the Minister for nearly a month and it has not been published. There is a growing concern among many people that the Government is dragging its feet on the publication of this crucial report. Will the Minister of State provide an update on when the Minister will publish the report? There is no reason for him to sit on it. An update on that would also be very welcome.