Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I too support the motion and I am pleased it is being discussed in the House. I am also glad the Government has responded to it by announcing it will publish the expert group report in which every citizen will be interested. Given that this debate is being conducted in the public domain, it is entirely appropriate that all relevant information should be made available. For this reason, I support the call of the family of Savita Halappanavar to have her case dealt with in the public domain.

Having had four expert groups deliberate on this issue, it is unlikely we will be surprised by any new expertise emerging from the report. This issue is not especially complicated. Other jurisdictions manage to deal with abortion in a reasonably simple manner without entering the quagmire the Irish State has created for itself. As a first step, legislation is required and in this regard I support the call for legislation in the motion. However, my amendment complements what Sinn Féin is calling for by preparing the ground to reintroduce the Bill I moved in the House in April. The Minister will be pleased to note that we have made the corrections he suggested at that time and I presume he will not have any difficulty in supporting our legislation on this occasion. While this legislation is important and we will not allow the Government to hide behind it, it deals with a small number of cases and does nothing to address the issue of thousands of women leaving the country every year to avail of abortion. They do so for many different reasons, none of which is easy and all of which are valid. The State has a responsibility to address this issue.

This debate has highlighted in the hearts and minds of people how inappropriate it is to have in the Constitution a clause which equates the life of the unborn with the life of a woman. That is the root cause of the problem and the reason we cannot have better legislation to deal with the many different aspects of this issue that people desperately want the Oireachtas to address.

I am referring to victims of rape, people with foetal abnormalities and the other situations that need to be addressed. It is inappropriate that this women's health clause is in the Constitution. We need to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. The Labour Party has for decades made itself out to be a campaigner for women's rights, but what is the point in coming to power if it does not implement its principles?

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