Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her plans to introduce regulation and licensing for crisis pregnancy agencies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45562/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I assume that the Deputy's question is referring to agencies that seek to manipulate women by providing a 'disingenuous' crisis pregnancy counselling and/or information service.

While there are no plans to consider a regulatory licensing system proposed by the Deputy, the approach adopted by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency on this issue is, among other things, to further raise the public profile of state-funded crisis pregnancy services. In this regard, the Agency is working on a wide range of actions that include:

A public awareness campaign which I launched in July 2009 entitled "Don't be manipulated" which highlights the existence of disingenuous agencies and promotes the availability of free, non-judgemental state-funded crisis pregnancy services;

continuous promotion through the "Positive Options" campaign of the availability of free, non-judgemental and confidential state-funded crisis pregnancy counselling services;

redevelopment of the "Positive Options" website to highlight the actions of disingenuous agencies and to give guidance on how to deal with same;

prominent advertising of "Positive Options" and consumer tips in the Golden Pages, including the regional directories, under "Pregnancy Testing and Counselling" and "Family Planning" sections. The use of a common logo for all state funded counselling services in current editions of the Directories;

funding of resources which provide clear objective information on the adoption process. The Agency provides information on adoption in manuals used in the training of bona-fide crisis pregnancy counsellors;

expansion of crisis pregnancy counselling services nationally by over 50% since the Agency was established in 2001;

guidance for crisis pregnancy counselling services in responding to third party complaints they may receive about "disingenuous" counselling services;

standardised training and up-skilling for counsellors in state-funded crisis pregnancy counselling services.