Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the rapporteur in so far as he says he is not contradicting himself but I think he is contradicting good sense. I might begin to agree with Deputy O'Reilly as she appeared to be suggesting it is for Ireland to decide its own laws on abortion without regard to what the UN has to say. She did not quite say that but she was going in that direction in her effort to support the special rapporteur. Deputy O'Reilly is heading towards better ground because quite clearly there is no moral coherence coming from the UN. We have just heard from the special rapporteur that, on the one hand, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities might oppose - I would like to know if it does - a chromosomal abnormality as a ground for abortion because it is discrimination but he has no problem with it on his committee. Not only that, he says he believes in promoting diversity and does not believe autism should be seen as something to be cured. Yet, at the same time, despite his interest in diversity, he says that somehow disability can be a particular ground where abortion is legal even though it might not be legal otherwise. That is logically incoherent, not to mind morally incoherent.