Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Those who fought for Irish freedom will celebrate tonight that Oireachtas Members can make a decision and ultimately allow the people to vote in a free democratic decision-making process to amend or not the Constitution of our country. I will always stand for the right of both sides in an argument but we are legislators.

I was in favour of Deputy Kelleher's motion and accepted it in the spirit of where we are going tonight. This is a very emotional issue for many people. I was two pounds when I was born. To me, life is precious, including the life of the mother and the unborn child, but we are not in 1983. When we examine the evidence of Drs. Boylan, Malone and Mahony, we note a gargantuan question must be put in the minds of all of us: do we keep the status quo, stand still or change?

Are the eminent medics who were before us all wrong and all saying one thing by way of groupthink? I do not believe so. The eighth amendment is a testament to a different era. It is also about the fact that people can afford to go to England. Dr. Boylan put across very clearly today that people can afford to go abroad. A generation of people are looking to us, as politicians, to be leaders. The human rights bodies have made a decision and rulings on us in respect of the eighth amendment being too inflexible. Dr. Boylan made it quite clear that Savita Halappanavar, whose anniversary is approaching, would have been alive today but for the eighth amendment to our Constitution. We may quote the Mellet case, where the State had to make a payment because of the eighth amendment but I fundamentally believe there is no such thing as legal certainty, as Deputy Murphy said and as we heard from the evidence. Whatever we do as a committee, we should travel with haste in arriving at whatever outcome we come to. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The Irish people will decide. I am sorry Senator Mullen is not present to hear this. Men and women fought for all of us to vote. There was a very genuine work ethic in private session and a business-like arrangement.

The Chairman has been fair, diligent and courteous. She has pulled us up and has been assertive when she had to be. In no way was she unfair to members. She was impartial and offered all of us an opportunity to put forward witnesses. Anybody who tries to discredit her or all of us in this room is doing the Oireachtas a disservice. One of the good things about the Houses of the Oireachtas is the integrity of the public servants, men and women, who work alongside the Chairman. They do their job to advise us. The Chairman has been very fair to all of us. I am glad Senator Mullen is back because I would not want him to believe I was giving out about him in his absence.

It is unfair to blame the Chair or to be unfair to her because she has been very fair to all of us. I would like to say that on the record. We may disagree and I respect Senator Mullen's right to have a different viewpoint from any of the 20 of us in this room. However, the Chair of our committee has reached out to all of us in a very fair and non-partisan way and in a manner that behoves the Chair. I would hate for people to think she has not done that.