Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the 100 m limit, Senator Mullen is saying, on the one hand, that there is no problem or issue here, and if that is the case, he should not have an objection to this legislation at all. He is saying there are no protests outside any of these facilities and, therefore, we should have no issue with passing the legislation. That aside, the idea that women who go in to access healthcare need people in their faces to remind them to think about something is highly patronising. Everybody thinks before they access this form of healthcare. It is also not about giving information to women, because we all know where to access information, thank you very much. It is about the future and ensuring people will not be intimidated in their daily lives as they go to work or as they access healthcare.

For all those reasons, we need to press on to make sure that people will not be prevented from accessing healthcare. I say that because I am from the west and I know how few doctors are providing abortions there. I fundamentally believe that is partly because of the fear of these kinds of protests and that is deeply unfair. The people have spoken. We listened and we will listen again when they speak this Friday. That is what we are here to do.