I thank Deputy Whitmore for her impassioned contribution. I thank the Minister for being here. Just shy of eight years ago, we celebrated the repeal of the eighth amendment. I use the word "celebrated" in a measured way, because although this is a grave and serious issue, it was an issue on which views on both sides of the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment were deeply held. I respect the views of those who campaigned against the repeal of the eighth amendment. We celebrated because it was a milestone for women's rights and gender equality in this country. It was a tough campaign. I was chased down a street in suburban Dublin being told that I had blood on my hands. During the campaign, it was clear that the voices that spoke most clearly to the public were the voices of those women who had suffered fatal foetal abnormalities and their experience was one of the reasons that many people chose to repeal the eighth amendment. We, as a State, built into that legislation a mechanism for review. Indeed, I contributed to that very review in my previous role. Within that review, there are clear recommendations as to what needs to be done to implement the repeal of the eighth amendment, yet this Government has failed to bring forward that legislation. So we have done exactly that. The Minister spoke about the principles that needed to be addressed. She spoke about legal and policy difficulties. She also mentioned subtle nuances. I urge her to work with us and bring this to Committee Stage so that we can work through those legal and policy difficulties, those subtle nuances, and arrive together at legislation that finally addresses this issue. Here is the issue: it comes back to choice. I respect anybody's choice to take a three-day waiting period, but I do not respect the imposition of that three-day waiting period on me or anybody else who chooses to move ahead. Women know their bodies. They know what they are doing. They know when they make the choice to terminate a pregnancy exactly what they are doing. All that these measures represent is the hangover of an infantilistic and misogynistic approach to women's health that prevailed in this country for many decades. Indeed, in some areas, it still prevails. Women know. Women need to be trusted and to be given the choice to proceed with their healthcare and their reproductive rights in the way that they wish. I urge all Government TDs to vote for this legislation and bring it forward to the next Stage so that we can get past the Minister's subtle nuances-----

Sentiment score: 0.08

-----and legal and policy challenges. Those were the words the Minister used.

Sentiment score: 0.10

My point is that this legislation is on the books right now, ready for the House to debate it. The Minister said that it needed to be debated in other chambers. Where are those chambers? This is where it needs to be done. It needs to be debated at the health committee and in the Dáil so that we can finally legislate for what people voted for on 25 May 2018.

Sentiment score: 0.07