Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with the Ministers of State at the Department of Health, Deputies Finian McGrath and Catherine Byrne.

It seems to me the AAA-PBP are determined to disrupt the established process of the Citizen's Assembly. The Programme for a Partnership Government sought to establish the assembly and address the eighth amendment as a priority. I have long supported a repeal of the amendment. I support free, safe and legal access to abortion for any woman who wants it. I would have a referendum tomorrow, if it were possible, but there is still no guarantee it would pass. That is why I support the Citizen's Assembly and the work it is doing to discuss the relevant medical, legal and scientific facts around the eighth amendment. Those who want a repeal have waited too long for a referendum to waste their opportunity to win it.

Deputy Coppinger may dismiss my support of a repeal, but the indisputable fact is that when Ireland voted in February, more Deputies from Fine Gael than any other political party were elected. It suits the Deputy to attack Fine Gael on all fronts and to try to demonise Members who were democratically elected by their communities to represent them. If the AAA-PBP is hell bent on destabilising the Government and rejecting its efforts to address the amendment civilly, have its Members given much thought as to which party or parties would replace the Government? If the latest opinion polls are to be believed, Fianna Fáil supporters are most in favour of retaining the amendment whereas fewer than one in five Fine Gael voters supports retaining it in its current format. Do AAA-PBP Members believe they will secure enough seats in the next election to form a Government? They made little effort this time. We live in changing political times, but perhaps they will not change soon enough for them to achieve that goal. On this issue, would it not, therefore, be a more reasonable approach to support the progress being made by the Government?

Deputy Coppinger and her colleagues have a politically radical, left-wing ideology and they will rarely appeal to voters of the centre or centre right. However, they do not have a monopoly on caring about the eighth amendment or about women's rights in this country. I am ashamed of our nation's record when it comes to these issues. I know many people from my side of the political spectrum who agree with a repeal of the amendment but they are conflicted by the sense that by supporting the Bill, or others like it, they would be guilty of endorsing the other policies and activities of the extreme left.

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