Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 30 Apr 1998

Vol. 490 No. 4

Written Answers. - Abortion Statistics.

Liz McManus

Ceist:

54 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will give the latest available annual figures for the number of Irish women having abortions in the UK; the percentage of the live birth rate this represents; when the Green Paper will be published; if he will reconsider his decision not to formally publish the recommendations made by the research group from the Department of Sociology in Trinity College, Dublin 2, in view of the fact that these are partly in the public domain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10192/98]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

The latest annual figure available from the British Office for National Statistics indicates that in 1996, 4,894 women who gave an Irish address had an abortion in the United Kingdom. This figure is equivalent to 9.7 per cent of the number of births in Ireland and to 8.85 per cent of conceptions, births and abortions for that year.

The target date for the completion of the Green Paper on abortion is mid-1998. The position in relation to the recommendations prepared by the Trinity College research team which undertook the study,Women and Crisis Pregnancy, remains as I indicated to the Deputy in my reply to Question No. 98 of 4 March 1998. My Department has suggested to the research team that it consider making a submission, incorporating its recommendations, to the working group which is preparing the Green Paper.