Legislation on safe access zones around abortion facilities being considered

The Government will consider the outline of legislation on safe access zones around healthcare facilities providing abortion services before the summer break, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has indicated.

Speaking today at the launch of an action plan for women’s health, Stephen Donnelly said his hope is that heads of bill will be brought to Cabinet before the Dáil rises for its summer break.

He said the aim is to have the legislation on the statute books before the end of the year. Laws governing the establishment of the zones, which prohibit protests taking place in physical proximity to such facilities, were promised in the programme for Government but Mr Donnelly has faced criticism over the extent of progress made.

He said today he is “100 per cent committed” to the progression of the issue. “We’re going to discuss some of the policy questions when we get the heads of bill drawn up, working with the AG’s office and then bring a memo to Government and get it on the floor of the house as quickly as possible,” he said.

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Asked about progress introducing free contraception for women aged over 25, he said his intent was to expand on the current level of provision, established in the budget last year, but it was contingent on budgetary conversations.

“It’s just a question of making sure we get the funding in each of the budgets to expand that because it is a very expensive measure,” he said.

Asked about reports of concerns in the UK government over how Ireland’s policy on Ukrainian refugees might interact with the common travel area, Mr Donnelly said he regrets the UK stance.

"Ireland is making the right decisions, Ireland is making the decisions as part of the European response and I regret the UK's current position, I would want to see the UK in line with what Europe is doing, but obviously that is a matter entirely for them," he said.

“Certainly from Ireland’s perspective, we will continue to open our country and our communities and our public service to these refugees, it’s the right thing to do.”

He conceded that the influx of refugees fleeing the war would place additional pressures on services.

“We will do everything that needs to be done, we could be talking about a large number of people, we could be talking about tens of thousands of people. Does that create an additional pressure on the system, of course it does,” he said.