Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are speaking about parents who are told their babies will not be viable outside the womb and mothers who are told their pregnancies will not result in the birth of babies. I thank Deputy Healy for tabling these amendments because it is important for these issues to be teased out and clarified in the context of this Bill. I agree with Deputy Conway that we must try to find practical solutions to deal with these genuine issues. We all need to knock heads together to ensure that happens.

I would like to ask a question about fatal foetal abnormalities. I have listened carefully to what the Minister and the Minister of State have said. Neither of them said they believed an amendment in relation to fatal foetal abnormalities would contravene Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution. The Minister of State, Deputy White, said we cannot take the risk that it might be found to be unconstitutional, but he did not say he thought it would be unconstitutional. I remind the Minister and the Minister of State that when Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Health and Children on the issue of term limits during the second set of hearings, she made the point that it was open to the Oireachtas to make legislation and allow it to be tested at Supreme Court level. If that point applies to term limits, surely we could go down the same avenue in this instance. If that is not the case, perhaps the Minister or the Minister of State might clarify the reasons. Do they believe it would be unconstitutional to draft an amendment along those lines? That is not what has come across here There seems to have been a nuanced change in the Government's position on this aspect of the matter since the initial discussions on it.