Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Tens of thousands of people will take to the streets of the capital this Saturday in what may well be the largest march for choice we have seen in this country. It begins at 2 p.m. at Parnell Square. Yesterday, the Taoiseach announced that a referendum on the eighth amendment will be held in May or June 2018. After all the campaigning and marching, and after years of being told there was no appetite for it, at last we have got this important and basic first step from the current Government. However, the question most vital to the thousands marching for this social change is what kind of referendum it will be. Will it finally deal with the reality of the situation in this country and will it respect the type of recommendations that the Citizens' Assembly put forward? Or, left in the hands of establishment politicians, will it be another cowardly fudge whereby most pregnant women seeking abortions will continue to be obliged to travel?

Based on comments the Taoiseach reportedly made overnight, we need to warn all those marching that the next three months are critical. They need to be very vigilant for the type of referendum that we will get. The Taoiseach said that he is not even sure how he will vote and that he will not direct his party members. He has had more positions on abortion than he has had different coloured socks. Unlike the colour of his socks, however, this is not a PR issue. When he was Minister for Health and 12 people a day were leaving the country, he did not see a need for a referendum at all. At one point, he thought rape victims should not have the right to abortion and, at another, that women should have the right abortion in cases where there is a threat of long-term damage to their health. The Taoiseach has said his views are evolving. While people are allowed to have evolving views, I think we might expect a person who has served as a Minister, who is a doctor, who has been in politics for a long time and who is now Taoiseach to have a more developed view on such a key issue.

Most recently, the Taoiseach and other Ministers speculated that they are not sure the public would vote for the Citizens' Assembly proposals.

Was that not why the Citizens' Assembly was set up in the first place - to test the public mood? If he cannot make up his mind, would he not be guided by the public forum that he apparently played a big role in setting up? Are the Taoiseach and his party on the committee going to respect those recommendations or are they going to try to quietly bury them? I am not as worried as he might be about the population supporting a referendum that would pave the way for abortion rights up to 12 weeks at the request of the pregnant person. The big hurdle to allowing what is needed is not the public; the big hurdle is here, this Dáil.

The recommendation the Citizens' Assembly put forward will cater for 92% of abortions that take place in the UK.

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