Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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13. To ask the Minister for Health why policy issues in respect of abortions as well as oversight of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act is subsumed into the tobacco and alcohol control unit of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13693/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Public Service Management Act, 1997, gives Secretaries General the power to assign responsibility for the performance of functions to officers of a department. Work is assigned by the Secretary General in my Department to areas where the skills and expertise reside in order to have the work completed as effectively and efficiently as possible. Responsibility for abortion policy is under the remit of the Chief Medical Officer who has overall responsibility for the area.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 was enacted on 30th July 2013 and commenced on 1st January 2014. The development of the Act reflected the very considerable input of a number of staff in the Chief Medical Officer's division. This means that very considerable knowledge and expertise on abortion and related matters resides within this area of the Department. The senior officers involved also have other responsibilities and this extends to the regulation of tobacco and alcohol.

The Act regulates access to lawful termination of pregnancy in accordance with the X case and the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the A, B and C v Ireland case. Its purpose is to confer procedural rights on a woman who believes she may have a life-threatening condition, so that she can have certainty as to whether she requires a termination.

As evidenced by the significant programme of work undertaken, my Department continues to actively engage with policy issues in this area, under the direction of the Government and the Oireachtas. The Government has made a commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to establish a Citizen's Assembly to make recommendations to the Dáil on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.