Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter and to seek clarification on important questions. Most of the debate so far has come from two opposing sides. There are many people out there who want to do the right thing: they want to give adequate rights and protection to both the mother and the unborn child and do what they believe is morally right and in the best interests of both. The mother and child currently enjoy constitutional protection in respect of equality of life. What we need from this Government at this time are facts and answers to unanswered questions. There are so many uncertainties at present.

Judging from the Taoiseach's recent comments reported in The Irish Times, this debate is all very premature. He stated, "We need to bear in mind that once, or if, the Eighth Amendment is removed from our Constitution, the legislation would then be in the purview of the Oireachtas and this Government does not have a majority in the House". This means that voters, if they repeal the eighth, have no guarantee that the Bill brought forward to legislate for abortion will be what is eventually signed into law. In the same article An Taoiseach also stated the Government could find itself in what he called a "strange position". He went on to say that "other rights to life exist in other parts of the Constitution that might then make any legislation we pass unconstitutional". Surely the advice of the Attorney General now needs to be brought into the public domain as quickly as possible in view of all this. The people need to know exactly what is going on.

There are also many unanswered questions for this Government as to how any legalised abortion would work in practice. Who will carry out these abortions? Will they be carried out in GP surgeries, in already overstretched hospitals or in new purpose-built buildings? Will all this require additional counselling services to treat post-abortion trauma, as takes place elsewhere? Our health service is already grossly underfunded and overstretched, and this proposal will add a whole new dimension to costs and administration. All this needs to be clarified by the Government.

We are debating this tonight and the Government has not yet formally adopted the committee's recommendations. If the eighth amendment is repealed, with what does the Government propose to replace it? If it is the case that the replacement will simply allow an enabling provision in the Constitution specifying that legislation in this area is the sole prerogative of the Oireachtas and not the courts, then the Oireachtas, both present and future, will have complete control over anything to do with abortion. None of us here knows how future parliaments will be composed. Repeal of the eighth will take away from the people forever the existing power and present decision-making on abortion which they rightly hold. Once again, the Government needs to be clear on this and inform the people what exactly it proposes.

Having spoken with people in recent weeks, I understand there is a widely held belief that unconditional access to abortion up to 12 weeks' gestation is actually abortion on demand, regardless of how it is portrayed. This is a cause for major concern among these people, and I, as a pro-life person, cannot support it. I want to make it clear that I totally respect the right of everyone to hold his or her own personal view but I also want to make it quite clear, on the record of the House, that I am pro-life and always will be pro-life and will not support the committee's recommendations. I expect people will respect my right to hold a personal view too. I call on the Government to make its decisions known and to clarify the issues I have raised to enable considered and respectful debate to take place.

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