Robinson, MaryWednesday, 6 March 1985 |
Seanad Eireann Debate
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Business of Seanad.
I was concerned that we would have a full opportunity to discuss all aspects of this Bill, both at Second Stage and at Committee Stage. I was informed by the acting Leader of the House there had been...
Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Bill, 1985: Committee Stage.
I have a number of issues I want to raise on section 2 of this Bill. I find myself somewhat handicapped in seeking to raise them because I had asked a number of questions on Second Stage which have n...
Yes. A three-day debate on Second Stage.
I am party to but I was no party of. I heard about it later. I was told there was an agreement. That is as much party as I had to it and that is what one accepts. It is not unusual to be told ther...
It has gone up.
I am not narrowing specifically on health boards. My query relates to health boards among other matters. I want to pursue the issue of the information available to this House. In response to the que...
You mean we will not draw any inference?
I want to come in on the same point. I am not sure we are getting clarity at this hour of the night. A number of important issues arise. Section 11 of the 1979 Act is couched in terms of individual...
Nothing can be more individual to a person than his conscience. It is inately related to the person. The exercise of it is also very precisely defined in section 11. It states: Nothing in this Act s...
I am informed by Members of this House that it has arisen and that a health board has taken this position. If so, then that health board has acted ultra vires. It had not the power to do what it pur...
It is like the sorrowful mysteries.
Has the Senator no more recent figures?
Has he no more recent figures?
We will get those later.
Now, unfortunately, we are higher.
I was here when Senator Fitzsimons made his speech and I listened to it very carefully. He made an allegation and I challenged him at the time that the abortion rate in the Republic was lower than in...
It is so felt.
We have dealt with a number of important issues arising out of the section. I would like to turn specifically to the extent to which the section relates to opening up access to contraceptives which I...
The Minister, nonetheless, on Second Stage, gave some indication of the information contained in that review. If we cannot have that review, for whatever reason, maybe the Minister will tell us why. ...
It comes back to freedom of information. Legislation has to be implemented. We will have to gain access to this information some day. However, working with the imperfect tools and knowledge we have,...
There is information and information. Most of us know that map exists. It would be helpful if we had that map in front of us; we would be much more informed. At one stage it was published in the na...
Total lack of outlets?
I am grateful to the Minister for this indication. Perhaps, if this is tolerable within the constraints of confidentiality in the Department, we could after this debate have more precise information ...
Could we have the precise outlets circulated to Members of this House? We cannot assess the scope of section 2 unless we are informed on this. There are two questions that arise from the Minister's r...
I want to refer to the questions that were asked of the Minister of State and particularly the point by Senator Bulbulia, about the apparent fact that chemist shops that are owned and run by limited l...
Too complex an issue?
I would like to ask one further question. I would agree unequivocally with all of Senator McGuinness's remarks, including her comments in passing, if the case is as she says, and I am inclined to th...
The Minister clearly has information and that is what I am looking for. Could the Minister tell the House what percentage of the chemists are limited liability companies?
Even a rough estimate for the city of Cork or Dublin?
Could the figure be obtained for Report Stage?
The reason it is important that we have that information is that when we are talking about the sale by chemists, the Minister has clarified that this quite definitely, under the terms of the definitio...
I accept the Minister's opinion. He has obviously had advice on this. That has a very broad significance. That applies not only to non-medical contraceptives and is to some extent further amending i...
Perhaps the Minister would clarify what the authority is to dispense the pill?
I want to make one further comment on the matter we have been discussing and then move on because, although there are spoiling tactics going on, some of us are actually concerned about the merits of t...
The Chair will be pleased to know that I am not going to respond or react in any way to what Senator Lanigan said. I do not think there were any insinuations implicit in it. As regards the context i...
The Minister of State, in reply to an earlier question of mine, referred to the fact that 20 per cent of doctors do not provide any family planning service. Is the Minister of State in a position to ...
The issue I want clarification on is the extent to which those 80 per cent of GPs who provide a family planning service tend to either totally or predominantly prescribe the pill. It is clear from th...
Sometimes I feel that raising the suggestion that it is unconstitutional is the last resort. I will not rise to that at all. I want to get back to the context in which we are seeking to change and e...
I object to that. We are trying to have a serious Committee Stage debate. It is no fault of mine or of some of the Members of the House that we are here at this hour. I would take exception to that...
I want to pursue this a little further. The Minister has given us very useful information in relation to the present situation in the prescribing of both medical and non-medical contraceptives that i...
The Minister has been doing that and I appreciate that. I did not mean statistical information, but was it a conclusion of the review, was it an observation?
Could I ask whether there is information on the extent to which the diaphragm is made available as a contraceptive and the extent to which this is made available through advice from GPs as well as fro...
I very much agree with and echo the Minister's sentiments in this regard. I am grateful to him and I appreciate the extent to which he is providing us with whatever information he has at his disposal...
Yes that is the number who are getting them on the GMS. When that is compared with total usage of 12,000 diaphragms, that is a very small percentage. I would consider this to be something that reall...
Would it be correct to say that we are really talking about importation so presumably we are importing a product that has been subject to quality control elsewhere?
I hope the Senator is not saying they have already been used.
If I could get back to the details of the section we are discussing, I want to move on to the next point of access. We have talked about the GPs and the present situation. Under section (2) (1) para...
As you were contemplating it, to what extent——
I am very pleased to hear the Minister say that, because I think if the health boards are actively and in a very conscious way providing full comprehensive family planning services and providing contr...
You got my agreement.
Again, this profile of the situation is helpful and it is probably late to have more comprehensive information, but we can reflect on some of the implications of the brief survey and information that ...
And Bray is another example. This is a very clear response to what the Minister said earlier, that there is a total inadequacy of outlets and of access. What I do not think is appreciated is the per...
Arising from subsection (4) I should like the Minister of State to inform us whether it is anticipated that there will be any delay before the Minister brings this Bill into operation by order or if t...
That is not saying much.
Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Bill, 1985: Report and Final Stages.
I will adopt somewhat the same attitude as Senator McGuinness to this amendment. I noticed that it was seconded in a more conscious way than it was proposed. The full implications were clear to Sena...
I agree completely with the thrust and wording of this amendment and, if I had any doubt, such as has been expressed by Senator McGuinness, I think that it is an amendment that should be supported. W...
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