Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On Thursday the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a serious condemnation of this State. This is the first opportunity we have had to hear from the Taoiseach directly about how he intends to respond. The human rights committee found Ireland's laws subjected Amanda Mellet to severe emotional and mental pain and suffering by denying her access to abortion services in Ireland. It found that ban violated her right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It is now instructing this State to amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary the Constitution, to provide effective timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland.

It also wants an assurance that health care providers currently operating can supply full information on safe abortion services, something Irish people thought they had voted for in referendums, but which the Taoiseach's previous Government undermined in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act with criminal sanctions. That information includes the abortion pill, which is currently being denied to women by doctors because they are fearful of the consequences.

Will the Taoiseach apologise to Amanda Mellet and commend her on her bravery in going public and exposing her personal situation? She does not simply want an apology. She did this for a reason: to bring about legislative change in Ireland not only for her situation but for all women. She did it to end the hideous practice of sending women out of the country for a health service that they need right here.

Every time this topic comes up the Taoiseach and his chorus of Ministers wring their hands and utter the refrain that it is highly complex and sensitive, etc.

Every other EU member state deals with this issue. Most states around the world deal with it. People in many of them do not have the luxury of a Ryanair aeroplane out of the country to deal with it. The states that seem to have the most difficulty in dealing with the issue of abortion tend to be dominated by the Catholic Church, states such as Ireland and Brazil, which is gearing up to punish women even more. In the case of Ireland, it is simple; we need a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. If the Government does not move very quickly, the Anti-Austerity Alliance and People before Profit will introduce a Bill to do so in the autumn, giving organisations and individuals time to lobby Deputies intensely to campaign for the passage of the Bill.

For years the Taoiseach has not listened to women telling him about this human rights abuse. Will he listen to this international human rights court? Having been told to move on this issue, is he still seriously suggesting he will continue on with the charade of a citizens' assembly, which is a three-way process to kick it down the road? I wonder how certain members of the Government are feeling, not the ones of long-standing who have continually voted for this abuse of women but the newer members who have gone very quiet. Some, we were told, went into the Government to seek the repeal of the eighth amendment, but we have not heard a peep out of them in the past five days.

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