Rónán Collins

As the middle-aged man voice, one has to be careful here, but I am the father of two daughters.

I think, to be fair, I think Louise is right.

I think there's loads of cases, particularly where younger women who might be the first time being pregnant mightn't realise they're pregnant.

I think that's true.

And certainly we see a lot of cases of very advanced pregnancies, for example, coming into hospital where the girl hasn't realised she's pregnant.

So I think that is true.

The second thing I would say is that I'm less hung up just to deal with the issue itself.

I'm less hung up about the waiting period.

I would be more along the line.

I think, first of all, many women, if they've already contemplated an abortion, I think they've already worked themselves through their thought processes.

But what I would be most advocating for is.

is to make sure that women, when they're making the decision, have access to a psychological counselling session so that they've considered all the options and alternatives for them and what's right for them.

That's more important to me than the period of waiting that they actually get that professional input and counselling.

And is that in place at the moment?

Well, I'm not sure it's completely in place, but I

But just to finish the point before Brenda comes back in, what more interested me about this was the general principle.

because most of the government TDs actually voted against the amendment as I worked it out.

But what more interested me was the principle.

If a government goes to the public and wants the public to come along with it, to change any aspect of social legislation, and it's contentious and it's emotive and it's difficult, and it gives a certain amount of reassurances,

The danger then afterwards, if you change that within a short period, is the public then maybe lose trust in the political body.