Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As a 16 year old boy, I was infuriated and maddened at the way in which the State treated a then 14 year old girl who had been raped by a neighbour in a case that has become known to all of us as the X case. It has been 21 years since the Supreme Court clarified the constitutional position on this most serious matter related to the health and lives of pregnant women. I did not envisage that it would take 21 years to take the small but significant step of legislating for the judgment in the X case, nor did I envisage at that stage that, more than two decades later, I would be one of those who would be charged with legislating to give effect to that decision.

For 20 years, the Labour Party has been a strong, consistent and frequently lone voice on the need to act on the judgment in the X case. I have never been silent on this matter, even when it would have been more politically expedient to be silent. I assure the House that I and my party colleagues bear the scars of this debate on our backs. Six previous Governments have shamefully neglected the Supreme Court judgment of 1992 by failing to act on it. As the Minister has stated repeatedly, however, this Government will not be the seventh to do so.

It saddens me that issues such as rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities have not been and cannot be addressed in the Bill on the basis that to do so would place the legislation outside the parameters of the current constitutional position. A terrible pain and heartache is involved in the decision to terminate a pregnancy where the foetus has no prospect of surviving outside the womb. It disgusts me that we do not permit terminations for women who have been raped and those who have been violated and abused through incest. The pain such women endure is compounded by the fact that services cannot currently be provided legally in circumstances where a difficult decision has been made to seek a termination under what are the saddest and most horrific circumstances. This House and the citizens of this Republic must ask whether it is compassionate and humane to force grown, mature adults to travel to access an intervention under such circumstances, many miles from the embrace of a loving and caring family. My answer is a firm "No"; it is far from humane and compassionate.

As I have stated previously, if it is the case that Deputies are not prepared to uphold and legislate for judgments of the Supreme Court and if representatives of the Irish people choose to dispense with this necessity, this House must take a long and hard look at itself. We cannot choose to ignore or cherry-pick parts of our solemn Constitution that are not to the liking of Members as to do so would be an abomination and would bring this House and democracy in this Republic into disrepute.

I am the first to recognise that Deputies on all sides hold sincere views on this complex issue. A large and strongly engaged centre ground has emerged in this debate in recent years, notably in recent months. The majority of Irish people are sufficiently well informed to decide for themselves what constitutes right and wrong by any ethical measurement. They are no longer prepared to be dictated to by an authoritarian monolith which contributed to many ethical, moral and social failings in this State. They will not be dictated to by an institution or cadre which, by its actions, has lost the authority it claims to tell people how to run their lives or how society should operate and be organised.

I welcome this long overdue legislation. It is only a matter of time before events dictate that we, the elected representatives of the Irish people, will be required to return to the parameters of abortion legislation. Such a debate is necessary and I expect it to take place. I am also prepared to ask the people of Ireland to take this decision.

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