Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very serious, contentious matter. This debate is being watched and listened to all around the country and beyond.

Since I came up here almost two years ago, it has dominated many days and weeks in this Chamber. There have been many discussions about it. Many people have different views and are able to articulate them in this Chamber, the Oireachtas committee and the Citizens' Assembly. Right around the country, everyone is talking and can articulate his or her view. However, the small baby who has begun its journey into this world cannot express a view, say a word or be asked to be let live. I am standing up for the right of that baby to be allowed to live and to continue the journey into this world. Life is a precious gift and sometimes there is only the breadth of one's nail between being dead and alive. I believe God alone decides or should decide when we come into this world and depart it.

Many people, including children, fight illness bravely to try to stay alive. Indeed, it is heartbreaking when a mother, father or any family member loses a child to cancer or many of the other illnesses that take people suddenly out of this world. Many women try very hard to start a family and go to enormous effort and expense to conceive. I know of one woman who tried so hard to have a child that she jeopardised her own life in that quest. Recently I met a family who were very down as they were going to have to give up a three-year-old boy they had fostered for the past two years. They are heartbroken. Many couples who cannot have children would gladly adopt. Sometimes, they even fail in doing that.

I love life myself. Both Eileen and I are lucky enough to have had six children. My son Johnny and his wife Caroline now have two children. I love my grandchildren very much and have watched them grow and get strong and sturdy from when they were born, when they were so small. I recognise the care and attention they need every minute and hour of every day when they cannot yet fend for themselves. I love all children; they are our future. In the same way, I care for all women and girls. Women give so much to their children, husbands, partners, homes, work, business, politics and everything else. As I was criticised recently by other politicians for trying to get sick elderly people into hospital who needed urgent medical intervention to stay alive, it is incumbent on me to argue for the survival of the small tiny baby inside a womb starting the journey into this world.

From the moment of being conceived, the baby has a right to life. The eighth amendment gives an equal right to life to the mother and baby. Many good, decent, hard-working people in this country share my view. I firmly believe that life begins when a baby begins to grow inside a woman. I believe it is a crime to take a life, inside the womb or outside it weeks later.

In the context of this debate, it must be remembered there are all kinds of contraceptives and devices to prevent pregnancy and which women did not have in times gone by. Large families were reared and brought up in my parish and, indeed, neighbouring parishes. In our parish, there were 17 Lovetts, 22 Cahills and 16 Sullivans, and my grandfather had 12 children. They certainly did not have very much but the one thing they did have was love for one another. They cared and looked out for one another. In bygone days, young girls were frowned upon if they became pregnant and they were even locked away. That was very wrong. I am glad we have moved a long way from that. It was almost 50 years ago. All pregnant girls and women deserve broad respect.

I reject the selective way the Citizens' Assembly was set up. Indeed, there was no representative at all from Kerry and several other counties. The members were not elected by anyone. They were selectively put in place, which was wrong. The Oireachtas committee was biased in the way it operated and the view of the pro-life people was not properly taken into account. Of course, all the people around the country will have a democratic right to decide in the referendum. What is critical, however, is the wording on which this Dáil will ask people to vote. It is not necessary to repeal the eighth amendment, which has served the mothers and babies equally well for many years. Article 40.3.3° protects the life of the mother should the pregnancy endanger her life. The question has not been answered as to what will replace the eighth amendment if it is removed. That is the real worry.

Many people do not know what happens when an abortion is carried out. People should educate themselves on this. Many people have not done so. It is really hurtful. It is really so bad. What the abortionist does is inject the baby twice, first to paralyse it and then to stop its heartbeat. I believe that is murder. I believe that is wrong. I could not do that. I will not be part of that.

In the course of this debate, a Deputy mentioned something about little Molly and 3,500 children who are homeless. I certainly hope that the Deputy did not mean that those children should not be alive but, nevertheless, the Deputy mentioned it in the course of the debate last night. Another Deputy mentioned former bishop Eamonn Casey. I do not know why his name should be mentioned in this debate at all. What I would say to that person is that Eamonn Casey did a lot of good for a lot of people, in England, Galway and Kerry. If some of the Deputies seeking abortion in this Chamber lived to be as old as Methuselah, they would never do as much good for people as Eamonn Casey, who is now deceased, did for people in his life.

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