Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

People Before Profit and the Anti-Austerity Alliance put forward a Bill proposing an immediate referendum on repealing the eighth amendment. The Government and Fianna Fáil voted it down last year on the basis that they would allow the Citizens' Assembly to examine the issue. Our view was that delaying a referendum and batting this issue to the Citizens' Assembly was a completely wrong-headed, misguided decision at best and at worst a cynical delaying tactic that puts the lives and safety of many women at risk.

At the weekend, we heard there had been 13,500 submissions to this small group of people. While I do not doubt their sincerity, they are a small, unrepresentative group of 100 people dealing with a deluge of submissions which they said were totally unhelpful and useless. For the most part, they were from the anti-abortion movement, which swamped the Citizens' Assembly with its perspective.

This is where the Taoiseach's decision has led us. It is breathing life back into the anti-choice movement and allowing it to try to interfere with the deliberations on the issue. It is happening because the Taoiseach has abdicated responsibility for what should be a democratic decision made by all the people in the country in favour of 100 people. It is delaying the issue and consequently endangering the lives, health and safety of women, 3,000 of whom have travelled abroad for abortions since June. Is it not time to commit to having the referendum? If the Citizens' Assembly recommends having a referendum, is the Taoiseach prepared to hold the referendum in June or later in 2017?

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