Dáil debates

Wednesday, 13 July 2016

7:15 pm

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It was remiss of me not to congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on his election when I spoke on the earlier business before the House. I wish him every success. I know he will be extremely fair and bring dignity and honour to the post.

After careful consideration, my party cannot support the motion tabled by the Government. A very clear and coherent argument against the motion was made by Deputy Jim O'Callaghan on behalf of Fianna Fáil, notwithstanding his indication that the party intended to abstain. We will not support the legislation creating the assembly either. My colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, will speak on that later in the debate.

The first and most important issue to be considered by the proposed assembly is the eighth amendment of the Constitution. As anyone who has served in the House for any period knows, abortion has been one of the most divisive issues in politics over the past 30 years. When I voted against the eighth amendment to the Constitution in 1983 as a newly appointed Member of Seanad Éireann, I believed the Constitution was not the place to attempt to deal with issues as complex as abortion. I was right then and my party was right to oppose the placing of that amendment proposal before the people at that time. Clearly, we must now address the broad range of issues which have arisen in the intervening 33 years. It is the solemn and proper duty of the Oireachtas to undertake that task. To seek to offload this difficult and contentious issue and to franchise out this really important work to what is, in essence, a focus group gathered by a polling company is wrong. Focus groups are formed by polling companies randomly selecting representative samples of the people, so that is what it is. It will not work and, bluntly, I consider it to be an act of political cowardice designed to long-finger an issue that should be addressed now.

It is wrong for the Minister of State to say that this is analogous to the Constitutional Convention which was a completely different creature involving politicians interacting, debating and bringing their skill sets to the discussion of constitutional matters with the public. We have a citizens' assembly elected by the people of Ireland in a democratic election. That assembly is called Oireachtas Éireann and, under Article 15, it has the sole and exclusive power of making laws for the State. In an area as difficult as this, we should step up to the plate and do that. We have a challenging and difficult job to do to address this issue, but we have shown, for example, by the way the health committee handled the very complex preparatory work for the X case legislation, that we can do it. People have the right to have their views heard and to have them challenged and to hear the views of medical, legal and constitutional experts, but that process should be conducted under the authority and oversight of the elected Oireachtas. I am afraid the only reason the path offered by the Government is being followed is to bring about delay.

This is a do-nothing Dáil. Today is the first day we have actually passed a Bill since the general election in February.

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