I welcome the Bill and the opportunity to speak in this debate. I used to work for a TD who sat on the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. I remember when that legislation was going through and how politically difficult it was. I also remember all the stuff that went into the legislation in order to get the legislation through the Dáil and to get the referendum passed. While the eighth amendment referendum brought us in out of the cold and stopped us being so abnormal and so cruel it was never meant to be a ceiling. It has not gone far enough. I welcome the intention of this Bill. As Deputy Cullinane alluded to, we never had a consensus approach to these things. This country had to be dragged kicking and screaming by activists. Somebody had to die. Savita Halappanavar had to die in 2012 before this country would move on this issue. While I welcome the Bill I think that in many ways it does not quite go far enough. We will still have women who are going to be forced to travel and the narrow distinction around the 28 days puts doctors in such an unenviable position. It is a no-win position. We know the 72-hour clause is paternalistic and we know why it was put into the legislation. The fact is that when we are too prescriptive when talking about a very narrow distinction around fatal foetal abnormalities and very severe non-fatal foetal abnormalities, somebody always gets lost. Somebody always falls through the cracks and somebody is always forced to travel elsewhere to get the healthcare they need. I have had people come to my clinic who, nine year on, are still absolutely traumatised. The Government has the O'Shea review, which has been published. The recommendations are there. It falls to an Opposition party to bring forward legislation to deal with that, because the Government does not have the political gumption or courage to implement those recommendations. To be fair, the Social Democrats have had to come in here on a Wednesday morning and use their Private Members' time to deal with this matter. That is ridiculous.

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Hear, hear.

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Disgraceful.

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