Complex issues muddy timeline for enacting Safe Access Zones legislation

Social Democrat TD Roisin Shortall (pictured) said based on discussions with gardaí about stopping protests outside Direct Provision centres or politicians’ homes, she was told: “They said they have no powers, that was said very categorically to me.” File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

Anti-abortion protests are already taking place outside medical centres, but a timeline for enacting Safe Access Zones legislation is not yet clear, the Oireachtas Health Committee heard on Wednesday.

The legislation has been promised since March of last year, but Department of Health officials said a number of complex issues continue under advice. They now expect the bill could be published within weeks but enactment will take longer.

Under the legislation all GP practices, maternity hospitals and other sites which could potentially offer termination services will be protected by a 100m safe access zone.

Committee members, including senators who co-sponsored the original private members bill leading to this legislation, queried the timelines.

Department official Caitriona Mason told Social Democrats health spokeswoman Roisin Shortall they hope to have analysis complete “as soon as possible”. She added “it has been going on longer than anticipated”.

She told People Before Profit TD Brid Smith: “We are anxious to see this completed”. 

Senator Martin Conway asked Department of Health assistant secretary Muiris O’Connor whether the legislation could be enacted by Christmas. “It is really hard to say”,” he responded, but added they hope to publish the bill “in the weeks ahead” 

Ms Mason said a central issue remaining is how members of An Garda Síochána will issue warnings and what effect these will have. The legislation proposes to rely on existing legislation on harassment in this area, but Senator Alice-Mary Higgins and others disputed whether this is adequate.

Ms Higgins said: “In part 1 of Section 10, there is a requirement for persistent harassment about him or her. You have to have the same person consistently harassing the same person.” 

You could have these relay situations again where multiple different people who work in a hospital may get harassed on their way in and that doesn’t really come under it. You could have a relay of different protesters in an organised way each taking turns to harass people.

Ms Shortall said based on discussions with gardaí about stopping protests outside Direct Provision centres or politicians’ homes, she was told: “They said they have no powers, that was said very categorically to me.” 

Mr O’Connor said in response: “That is something we will take back to the exercise, and engage with An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice and OPC (Office of Parliamentary Counsel) on.” 

He also said: “The operation of the warning along with its unlimited temporal and geographic effect is one of the matters currently under consideration by Advisory Counsel and an opinion is awaited.”  He confirmed an original plan to define the zones using the term ‘curtilage’ has been dropped as unclear.

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“The parameters of the zones would now be calculated as being 100m from the entrance of the healthcare facility to a public road or street,” he said, adding this will be measured from every entrance into a building.

Many of the estimated 3,500 GPs affected by this legislation live in the same building as their practice, and other changes reflect this complexity.

“From a policy perspective it is also intended to include private property in certain instances, and this is the subject of ongoing engagement with Counsel,” Mr O’Connor said.