I support the call by Senator Darragh O'Brien for a debate on perinatal hospices. We were all impressed by the families who addressed us prior to the summer break, but the core question is how to create a society that welcomes families with children who have been diagnosed with disabilities or foetal abnormalities which may be fatal in the short term, and provides the necessary legal and social support for parents and their babies. It is important to revisit some of the themes that were opened up on the last occasion in order that we can learn the Government's plans, even in these straitened times, to ensure families in this situation receive the proper support.

The proposal last week to open a Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast caused concern for a significant number of people. These events are, of course, taking place in a neighbouring jurisdiction but what happens there matters a great deal in terms of how these issues evolve in this jurisdiction. We should welcome the warning from the Northern Ireland Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Edwin Poots, MLA, that the clinic must be careful to remain within the law. I would go further to argue that Marie Stopes is an organisation that cannot be relied on to respect the law of the land. It has no respect for human life, for mothers or for children.

That is not true.

I am surprised to hear Senator Bacik defend Marie Stopes, of all organisations. Last year an Irish woman nearly died after a botched abortion by one of its doctors. This doctor did not even have indemnity insurance. He had been responsible for a death ten years earlier while he was working for the British pregnancy advisory service. The Sunday Business Post revealed how Marie Stopes appears to be abusing the law by its link with the organisation in Britain. These are not the people to put in charge of caring for women's health. What we see in the Northern situation is how an apparently narrow ground for abortion, namely, an alleged threat to life or health, gets used by people with an agenda. In the Republic we have successfully guaranteed necessary medical treatment to women at all times without recourse to abortion by always guaranteeing a woman's life and health, even when it is not possible to save her child. That approach of caring for two patients is the model we must follow and I hope it informs the Government's decisions and our debates in the coming weeks.

There is something inevitable about the proposal to cut the money going to fee-paying schools. The Minister for Education and Skills has to find €77 million out of €9 billion. It is understandable that fee-paying schools would be recognised as a legitimate target. However, the Department of Education and Skills has asked for details on how the schools are spending their fee income and it may emerge that some of the schools are not in a position to sustain cuts because of the good commitments they have made. I hope diversity will not be attacked, that Protestant schools in areas where they may be vulnerable will be exempted from any cuts and that serious consideration will be given to schools that cannot afford to sustain cuts. In the end, these parents and families cost the State less when it comes to educating their children because they are putting in more. That deserves credit rather than derision, and I hope the approach taken to the issue is not overly ideological.