Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the Bill. All of us have listened to the horrific stories and experiences of women who have had to travel to Liverpool to deal with the outworkings of a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality. That was enough to tell me that the right thing to do is to pass legislation to address this but, unfortunately, that is not enough for the Government parties. They choose to hide behind the Constitution and refuse to deal with the issue by claiming the legislation is unconstitutional. However, the Government cannot make that determination. The Attorney General is appointed under Article 30 of the Constitution as the legal adviser to the Government, not as the determiner of the constitutionality of legislation. A previous Attorney General advised the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of the Government that it would be disrespectful to the domestic legal order for the court to assume what would be a domestic court's response to a novel question. However, it is disrespectful for the current Attorney General to the domestic legal order to assume what would be a domestic court's response to a similar novel question. This question has not been tested in the courts, but we are saying that a woman faced with this horrible scenario has to test in the courts. If we had the courage of our convictions in this Oireachtas, we would pass the legislation and have it interpreted by the courts, because judges are the only people who can interpret whether legislation is constitutional. They are the only people who can deal with whether a novel question has to be dealt with and who can interpret the laws of the State in respect of it.

It is disrespectful and disingenuous for Government Members to utter statements that this legislation is unconstitutional. If they were being honest, the best that they could say is that in their opinion it might be unconstitutional. That would change the context of the argument they are making, if they were honest about the legal position in respect of the Attorney General and how legislation can be dealt with. This legislation should be passed. It should be tested, and then we could determine once and for all what is the position.

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