I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to respond to this debate on behalf of my friend and colleague, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. I sincerely thank all who contributed, both those who I agree with and, in particular, those with whom I do not agree. For the entirety of my life, disagreement on this issue has sometimes led to the worst scenes in politics, where party politics, personal ambition and personal focus from across the spectrum have, unfortunately, really diminished the level of debate and taken the political discourse into a place where the heart of the issue we are talking about has been moved into the abstract. It is a vitally important development that we are able, in 2026, to have what I would say has been a relatively civil and constructive debate in this Chamber in which we disagree with each other agreeably and respect fundamentally the right of all Deputies in the House to have their own personal or political party opinion and their own approach to this issue. The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring there is safe and equitable access to termination of pregnancy services. In that respect, it is worth acknowledging the substantial progress that has been made to date. Termination services in early pregnancy are now provided in all 19 maternity hospitals. There also has been a sustained increase in community providers, with their number currently standing at 492. The revised model of care introduced in response to the Covid pandemic is now approved as the enduring model of care. Under that blended approach, it is possible for one of the two consultations required for termination in early pregnancy to take place remotely. As outlined earlier by the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, this alleviates some of the difficulty that may be associated with the mandatory three-day waiting period in that it reduces the time and expense involved in travelling to the doctor's surgery twice. It also improves access for many women and addresses geographical and logistical barriers. Safe access zones legislation came into effect on 17 October 2024 under the Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Act. The cumulative effect of all these measures is to substantially reduce barriers and increase access to services for those who need them. The feedback received directly from clinicians indicates that the service is working well. This is particularly significant if we take account of the fact it is a relatively new service that has been built up from the ground. There is a broad range of sincerely held and articulately expressed views on termination of pregnancy and the removal of the three-day wait. In the interests of being helpful, I will briefly address some of the points raised while I have been in the Chamber. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will, of course, continue to engage with Deputies from across the House on this issue. Deputies Sherlock and O'Gorman called for wider political co-operation to expedite the progress of the legislation. It is my understanding that the Minister has engaged in an element of consultation with the service providers and with politicians of all shades. She will continue that. The vote on this Bill tomorrow evening will decide at what rate that proceeds. This is not a straightforward process. Regardless of where people stand on the issue, we all know that any legislation that comes from this may be quite different from what we now envisage. It must be implemented in a practical way. Deputy Coppinger made clear her view that the full recommendations of the O'Shea report should be put in place. There is a multitude of recommendations, as has been detailed in some depth from a legal point of view by Deputy Geoghegan. All of those recommendations are being taken on their merit. I understand why there is some frustration. On Deputy Tóibín's point, I say sincerely that I have no interest in engaging in any politicking on this matter. I do not want this to become a political debate about the substance of the issue, regardless of people's stance on it and their deeply held personal convictions. We can all agree that the views expressed are all deeply personally held convictions. A person's stance on this issue is not one to which any of us has come lightly. It is my fundamental belief that what we voted on in 2018 - I campaigned on one side and some of the Deputies here campaigned on the other side; that is politics - was the decision to repeal the eighth amendment from our Constitution and to provide for termination of pregnancy services as a legislative matter. That is the core issue on which we voted. There were many other aspects of the campaign and I completely take Deputy Tóibín's points in that regard and those eloquently made by Deputies Nolan and Michael Healy-Rae. Fundamentally, however, the decision was taken by the Irish people to empower the democratically elected Members of the Oireachtas to legislate on these matters, as is done in jurisdictions around the world. That was the fundamental decision and it is the basis on which we approach the debate this evening. The Government will not oppose the legislation because it has declared a conscience vote for Deputies from both parties in government and the group of Independent Deputies who support it. In that context, it is important to set out my own personal view. I would have been supportive of the Bill introduced a couple of weeks ago by the Social Democrats. I was the sole Fine Gael Member to vote for the Bill brought forward by People Before Profit in the previous Dáil. I am absolutely consistent on this and, as such, I am supportive of the Bill before us and very grateful to the Sinn Féin Party for putting it forward. That is not the case for some other members of my party and some others of my fellow party TDs. They are empowered to make a decision on the Bill in their own right. As Deputy Coppinger rightly said, the proposals in this Bill were brought about by a grassroots campaign. I know what it was like to be the sole Fine Gael Member who voted for legislation on this issue in the previous Dáil. In 2014, in a local authority vote, the three people who voted in favour were the two People Before Profit councillors and me. There is a divergence of views on this issue that does not align with a narrow political division. We must respect that people reflect on it deeply and come at it from a very personal point of view. Last night, I had the distinct honour of addressing the annual general conference of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which was held in Dublin. An event like that being held here would have been completely unthinkable not so long ago. The people gathered came from more than 100 different countries around the world where they have seen clear legislative backsliding, not just in areas like this but more generally when it comes to gender equality, the rights of women and the rights of minorities, including those of minority faiths. They see real political and administrative pressure being put on their livelihoods. They came to Dublin because they know it is a safe place to have their conference and have a discussion, where people can disagree with them but not persecute them. I am delighted the Government is now in a position to support the federation. I signed off last night on a doubling of our funding to it. That is something I will continue to do in my work as Minister of State with responsibility for international development in a situation where an arbitrary culture war being waged somewhere else has seen maternal health in the poorest countries in the world drop to some of the worst levels seen. We are living in a time when HIV-AIDS infection rates, after 25 years of reducing, are now rising again. That is fundamentally due to political decisions. AIDS rates are going up, malaria rates are going up and the level of infant mortality is rising because of political decisions. It is in the context of my work in international development that I want to ensure Ireland continues to be a safe and progressive place to be a woman, first and foremost, and everything that goes with that. The strides made by us in our constitutional decisions in recent years are something that go above and beyond politics. The tenor of those debates, going back to the citizens' assembly, the debates in the Seanad and at the eighth amendment committee, chaired by my dear friend and then Seanad colleague, Catherine Noone, were reflective of a better Ireland than the Ireland that voted when I was an infant in my mum's arms to insert the eighth amendment into the Constitution. Regardless of what everyone feels about the issue, and I fundamentally respect that, they were not good debates and not good politics. It created a system of othering that none of us can stand over, whether we believe in the decision to legislatively pursue removing the three-day wait or not. From a deeply personal point of view, this legislation is welcome and I will, of course, support it but I think we all know - those of us who believe in this - that we can do more and we have a responsibility to do more. That will not come from a party-political decision, and there will be opposition to that which is healthy and democratic. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has stated she will also support this legislation, as will the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. The decision taken by any other Member on the Government benches, whether they are a ministerial officeholder or other, is for them. I have laid out my very clear opinion, which I think can be respected by the Chamber, and we can continue this debate. If it is to be passed tomorrow night, and I sincerely hope it is passed by a majority in this Chamber, we can progress a legislative debate in the manner we have been able to achieve - a debate, I believe, on the most sensitive of topics on this island, carried out in a way that does not drag in unnecessary comparisons and which does not provide a campaigning platform for attack and negativity. At the end of the day, somewhere around the country at this moment is a 14- or 15-year-old girl who has been raped and is being faced with a very serious decision. She does not need politicians, particularly male politicians, using her as a political football. My appeal to the Chamber, whatever one's conscience is - and I respect it - is to please debate as if that young person is watching.

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