Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

It is a very sensitive issue, with many different perspectives across the House and the country in respect of it.
We had a referendum a number of years ago that essentially created the legislative framework that now governs termination of pregnancy services. Significant progress has been made in that respect over the past number of years, which sometimes does not get acknowledged in the commentary.
As the Deputy knows, a Private Members' Bill relating to the three-day waiting period for termination in early pregnancy passed Second Stage in June and is currently undergoing detailed scrutiny by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health. Officials from the Department of Health and the HSE appeared before the joint committee as part of the process. The Minister and her team will continue to engage constructively with the joint committee and Deputy Cullinane regarding the progress of this Bill. We are aware there is a varied and broad range of sincerely held opinion on the abolition of the three-day waiting period, so we have allowed a conscience vote on this issue and support respectful debate on it.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30