Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our colleagues from Together for Safety to the Chamber. I am clear, as I have said on many occasions, that without Together for Safety we would not be here today. I give them all credit for their campaigning. I also give credit to everyone in this Chamber who united behind our Bill, which was a Together for Safety Bill, and I want to give credit to the Minister for following through on this particularly important legislation.

On the amendments being considered today, it is important that we remember what we are talking about, namely, people being targeted on their way to hospital or to important medical appointments. That is just fundamentally wrong. I will quote a doctor from University Hospital Limerick, UHL She said, "protesters stare down all of the women and girls who enter our building with a distasteful voyeuristic interest". They have signs that say "Praying for You" and "Praying for Aborted Children". Anyone can protest. That is absolutely fine, but the idea that you target people on their way to private medical appointments is entirely wrong and flies in the face of the vote we had for repeal just a few years ago. We have been waiting a long time for this legislation. We are nearly there. Let us get on with it.