Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

As other speakers have said, we value our Constitution. We should not embark lightly on changing it and we should not change it unless there is an issue to be addressed. We should carefully examine the implications of change and see if there are other ways to address the problem. Good governance is about making those decisions and going through that kind of due process before proposing any changes to the Constitution.

Unfortunately, as many speakers have said, that has not happened. The Taoiseach told us recently there was no intention of putting forward any proposals to change the Constitution this year, yet now we are rushing through legislation to address this issue at the same time as the local and European elections on 11 June. This is occurring in conjunction with a significant change in the voting mechanism — electronic voting — which will be confusing enough for people without having them make three different decisions, or four where town councils must be decided.

My party and I are particularly concerned that we are proposing to change the Constitution in this rushed way without the consideration merited by such a change. We have not had a Green Paper, White Paper or referral to the All-Party Committee on the Constitution. We have not even had a discussion with political parties in the South and North which were signatories to the Good Friday Agreement and that may be the most disturbing aspect of the process. That lack of discussion has significant implications which have been outlined by Mr. Mark Durkan, leader of the SDLP.

It is quite amazing the Taoiseach did not see fit to discuss this change with the parties affected by it in Northern Ireland. The DUP has been allowed to say our Government is opening up what was agreed very carefully in the various strands of the Good Friday Agreement and in the annexes to the agreement between the two sovereign Governments. The implications of being allowed to say this are that the DUP can open up the Agreement also.

The implications of this change to the Constitution for the Good Friday Agreement are probably the most serious of all and our party has given them serious consideration in deciding we are against this referendum. It is incumbent on the Government to see if there are other ways to address the issue concerned besides changing the Constitution. I am not a constitutional lawyer but I have read articles in newspapers by experts in this area which have stated that it is possible to address this issue through legislation. Should that avenue not have been explored? This matter could have been put forward for discussion among the learned people who understand constitutional law before we rush to asking the people to make a decision on the issue. That might have been possible, though as I am not a constitutional lawyer I do not know.

I am a member of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution and at its last meeting we were finalising our proposals on whether there was a need to change the Constitution to reduce the price of building land. At the end of that meeting I proposed, under any other business, that the committee should make itself available to the Government to examine this issue with the same level of detail and diligence that we examined the issue of land prices. There was no opposition from the other committee members, from both Government or Opposition parties, all of which are represented. That seemed to me the way to go and the committee was prepared to examine the issue, so I take issue with the comments of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that there would be no point in referring this to the All-Party Committee on the Constitution as two of the parties represented on it had declared their opposition. Everyone there was willing to look at the issue.

If one remembers the abortion issue being referred to the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, that was a matter of great contention as to whether the committee would be able to come up with some agreed recommendation. However, the committee did its work on abortion very well. I was not a member of the committee at that time but other speakers have referred to the former chairman, Deputy Brian Lenihan, who presided over the committee when it stated that that was the appropriate process for proposals to amend the Constitution. Some Fianna Fáil speakers have said we should have a reasoned debate. It is perfectly reasonable to come to a conclusion that putting forward an amendment to the Constitution in June, along with the elections, is not the way to go and that there are many other possibilities we should explore before taking that option.

On that committee's handling of the abortion issue, my first induction into political activity was in the early 1980s and my first political campaign was in opposing the abortion referendum in 1983, which was tough. I remember people on the doorsteps telling me they were absolutely certain that that wording would achieve what they wanted to achieve. We asked them about the equal right to life of the foetus and the mother, about balancing rights in the Constitution and whether it was appropriate to include such issues in the Constitution. They said it was and that we were wrong and bad. That lesson suggests we should not rush headlong into amending the Constitution when there is a perceived problem.

I will not go back over what others have said about the size of the problem. Many people have stated that we do not have the accurate statistics we need to work out what the problem is, and I accept there is a problem for hospitals in dealing with mothers who are admitted very late in pregnancy. The Chair, as a medical doctor, will know the health implications for mothers and babies. There is a problem when women travel long distances on aeroplanes late in their pregnancies to give birth, as obviously a woman can give birth before her time, which may cause serious health problems. There are also problems with the resources of the maternity hospitals, not just in Dublin but in other parts of the country, as our rate of obstetricians to women giving birth is the worst in Europe. Our maternity hospitals are under resourced, which needs to be addressed, but that is a separate problem. It is a problem of provision which the Government should address irrespective of whether women are travelling late in pregnancy.

Is there a way to address the issue of women travelling late in pregnancy? Some speakers have asked about women getting on planes at the advanced stages of pregnancy but I understand there are few countries where this occurs. Can we ask our diplomats to address this problem, which is primarily one of maternal and infant health rather than one of citizenship? If possible we should do so for the sake of the mothers and babies.

It is not just those mothers and babies who will be caught up in this — it is also people who are here on work permits because we need them. From what we have been told, they may have to be here for three years before giving birth in order for their babies to qualify for Irish citizenship.

I commend my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dea, for his views on this issue. On the television programme "Questions and Answers", he said it was not a good idea to have the referendum in June. The problem, however, is that Deputy O'Dea does not always get his way. He said some good things about taxi deregulation, maintaining the 50-50 status of Shannon Airport and about the matter we are currently debating but, unfortunately, he does not seem to have any clout.

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