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

It is unbelievable that having received such a stern rebuke, the Taoiseach is going to continue with the delaying tactic of a citizens' assembly. He has spoken about listening to women in the case of the Magdalens - we could argue that one - and in the case of marriage equality but he did not listen to women when Savita Halappanavar died. At that time, rather than saying it was absolutely necessary to repeal the eighth amendment to protect the health of women, he proceeded to bring in a draconian law of which the likes of Donald Trump would be proud. He could only dream of imposing a 14-year jail sentence on a woman having an abortion or trying to help another woman have an abortion. The Taoiseach has said that it would be pointless to rush in but this has been debated and discussed for many years. Nobody is suggesting that a referendum should take place tomorrow, as it is obvious that there should be a period of debate, but there is already a consensus. The consensus has always been that the eighth amendment should be removed from the Constitution on the basis that it should never have been included in the first place. It was sought by one group only. There has always been a consensus that the citizens' assembly here - the one to which we were all elected in recent months - should legislate following the removal of the eighth amendment. The only people who are striking a note of discord are the likes of the Taoiseach's Ministers, who are talking about putting something into the Constitution to replace the eighth amendment that would be equally problematic for many years into the future.

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