Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution
Completion of the Examination of the Report and Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly and Preparation of a Draft Report in accordance with the Terms of Reference of the Joint Committee
2:00 pm
Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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It is farcical, on the one hand, to say we have had a full discussion of all these issues and then, on the other, to make an arbitrary distinction by saying we have debated these matters and that members have had an opportunity to contribute on certain other recommendations today which touch directly on legalised abortion. We have now got to this stage. I know that we are all tried; I am certainly pretty tired. I am hearing that because the secretariat has to reach a certain deadline, we can truncate the discussion. That is an implicit acknowledgement that the recommendations are less important. Frankly, I do not believe any of this serious stuff means that we should close down debate.