No way of recording ‘warnings’ issued to protesters outside abortion clinics, Committee told

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said it would not be possible to retain a central record of individuals who receive warnings for protesting outside abortion facilities.

Mr Donnelly said the Garda Pulse system does not have the technological capacity at the moment to record “prior warnings” issued by An Garda Síochána to individuals.

He also said that the Attorney General had advised him that it would not be appropriate for a Minister for Health to be involved in regulating for circumstances that fell within the operational remit of An Garda Síochána.

The Minister was speaking at the Committee Stage of the Health Bill which will create safe access zones around facilities for pregnancy termination.

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Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane had tabled an amendment calling for such a register to be established, which would allow gardaí to know that an individual protesting in one location had been issued a prior warning at another location.

Mr Cullinane said there was a need to include a “clear, practical and effective system of recording prior warnings in the Bill”.

Mr Donnelly replied that the Garda had “indicated that it’s not possible under the current configuration of Pulse to record these warnings centrally.

“The advice I have as well is that it would not be appropriate for the Minister for Health, albeit in consultation with the Minister of Justice, to become involved in regulating operational matters for An Garda Síochána and prescribing the systems to be used.”

Several deputies expressed bemusement that such a system was not available. People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said she found it bizarre that in 2023 “the gardaí don’t have a way of knowing this guy was in Cork, and then he went to Kerry to protest in two different places in the same day, that they don’t have a way of communicating that to each other.

“It’s bizarre. That means any bowsie could be doing anything, robbing something in Cork and then robbing something In Kerry.”

Mr Cullinane withdrew the amendment on the basis that the issue would be examined in a review.