Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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2586. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 855 of 8 July 2025, the number of early abortions provided through fully remote consultations, in each of the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41018/25]

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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2587. To ask the Minister for Health if doctors are required to record the number of abortions they provide through fully remote consultations; if records are kept of the reason an in-person consultation was not done; the safeguards that were put in place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41019/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2586 and 2587 together.

As the deputy is aware, the information relating to termination of pregnancy notified to me, as Minister for Health, is prescribed by law. Under Section 20 (1) of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, a notification of each termination of pregnancy carried out under the legislation must be notified within 28 days of it being carried out. Section 20, subsections (3) and (4), require me to prepare a report on the notifications received in a given year not later than 30 June the following year and thereafter to lay it before the Houses of the Oireachtas and arrange for its publication.

The notifications are recorded on the form entitled “Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (Notifications) Regulations 2018” (Statutory Instrument No. 597 of 2018). The following information is included in the form:

• Medical Council registration number of the medical practitioner who carried out the termination of pregnancy;
• The section of the Act under which the termination was carried out, i.e., section 9, 10, 11 or 12;
• Medical Council registration number(s) of the medical practitioner(s) who made the certification concerned;
• The county of residence, or place of residence (where the woman resides outside of the State) of the woman concerned;
• The date on which the termination of pregnancy was carried out.

The revised model of care for termination of pregnancy in the community is based on a blended approach, whereby it is possible for one of the two consultations required for termination in early pregnancy to take place remotely. Fully remote provision is not routine and only undertaken in exceptional circumstances.