Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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1812. To ask the Minister for Health the reason that his Department has made €60,000 available to a team of researchers based at a non-European Union university to gather the views of abortion providers to inform the abortion law review given that it is apparent from recent publications by the lead researcher in academic journals in May 2022 including SSM - Qualitative Research in Health and SSM - Population Health that these researchers have already conducted interviews with abortion providers and the research is widely available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30460/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 was signed into law on 20 December 2018 and commenced on 1 January 2019. Under section 7 of the Act, a review of the operation of the Act must be initiated within three years of the commencement of the Act, i.e., before January 2022.

The Review is being led by an independent Chair and comprises of 2 main phases. As part of the first phase of the Review, information and evidence on the operation of the Act will be collected. There are 3 elements within the first phase of the Review; service user research, service provider research and public consultation.

The second phase of the Review is being led by an independent Chair who will assess the extent to which the objectives of the 2018 Act have been achieved, analysing in that regard the findings of the three strands of information. The Minister for Health appointed Ms Marie O’Shea B.L. as the independent Chair of the Review.

A request for tender to carry out the research into the views of service providers was published on eTenders. The objective of this research is to capture the views and experiences of service providers and will be a key input to the Review of the operation of the 2018 Act. A total of five responses were received and evaluated in line with procurement guidelines. The evaluation process has now concluded, and the successful tender was chosen in line with the published award criteria. This is in line with established competitive procurement processes.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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1813. To ask the Minister for Health the number of failed medical abortions which required referral to hospitals for surgical abortion in 2019 and 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30461/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.