Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tragic, difficult, challenging situations face mothers, fathers and unborn children every day which create enormous stresses and strains in their lives. Many people experience a level of darkness and difficulty that I will never experience myself. I believe that our approach to these families - our friends, our neighbours and our relations - should be founded on compassion. While it is impossible to discuss this issue without using some language that some people will find contentious, it is never my desire in any way to be seen to be making judgments on anyone's decisions surrounding this issue. However, I believe passionately that the solution for one person can never be the ending of a life of another human being. I believe that every single individual should have an equal right to life.

This is the first time I have had a chance to speak on this matter in the House since the referendum, so I wish to offer a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in the right to life campaign in recent years. More than 100,000 people throughout the Twenty-six Counties were involved in one of the largest people-powered campaigns in generations. Ordinary people on the pro-life side marched in their hundreds of thousands, distributed leaflets, knocked on doors, designed and created social media and lit up the streets with their campaigning abilities. They did so without the support of any political party or media. In fact, in many cases the pro-life campaign faced hostility from political parties, individuals and the media. They should realise that they did an amazing thing, and I have no doubt but that these activists will be considered heroes by future generations for standing up for life because life is the most valuable thing we have. They fought for the most vulnerable people within society, that is, unborn children. Many of these campaigners are broken-hearted and many have their heads down and are wondering what to do next, but disappearing is the wrong decision. Disappearing will simply give licence to those who seek to radically deregulate abortion further.

It is important to remember that 723,632 people voted "No" in the abortion referendum. This is higher than the total vote in the most recent general election for both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and higher than the total combined vote for Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and the Green Party. That is a massive chunk of individuals. Taken on an all-Ireland basis, the right to life vote pushes to around 1.2 million or 1.3 million people. It is a minority, but a significant minority and a minority that has a right to participate respectfully in this debate in the future. It should not be censored or vilified by any individual or politician or the media.

Last week, I listened to Deputies such as Thomas Byrne who, almost in a state of panic, demanded that we push this abortion Bill through Leinster House as fast as we could. He stated that the people had spoken, the Bill as laid out was sacrosanct and the voice of the people was sovereign. The Deputy was right on the last point, and it is clear that a large majority of people voted to repeal the eighth and that the democratic will of the Irish people must be respected. Abortion will be made legal in Ireland and we have to accept that, but the Deputy is wrong that the people voted for this particular Bill. I have a different view than my party colleague on this, as it is untrue. The chair of the Referendum Commission, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, stated before the referendum that the vote was simply to repeal the eighth amendment only. She made it clear that, legally speaking, the vote was not on the legislation and that deleting the eighth would leave it to the Oireachtas to legislate on the issue.

Every politician worth his or her salt around here likes to interpret the result of a referendum. Indeed, one's interpretation of a referendum result cannot usually be contradicted. In this case, though, it can be. RTÉ carried out an exit poll on the day of the referendum that was approximately four times the sample size of the normal opinion polls that consume the minds of politicians. Like all decent opinion polls that give a snapshot, there was certainly a margin of error. It was actually on the pro-repeal side, as many right to life voters were shy that day. The exit poll scientifically asked whether, if a majority of voters voted "Yes" to the referendum, the Oireachtas would still be able to implement strict restrictions on abortions in Ireland. Of those polled, 60% agreed with that statement. Crucially, on the question of whether voters favoured abortion without restriction up to a gestational age of 12 weeks, the majority in Munster, Connacht and Ulster did not agree with that aspect of the Bill. Across the State in total, roughly 50% of the people who voted on that day stated they did not agree with abortion on demand. Is that not incredible? With all the talk in the Chamber that the people knew exactly what they were voting for and were voting on every minute element of the Bill, the opinion polls state that that is factually incorrect. It goes further. Of "Yes" voters, 20%, or over 250,000, said that they did not agree with abortion being available on demand. Referendums are simple issues. They are binary questions - people are asked to vote "Yes" or "No", but they definitely cannot be asked to vote on each minute aspect of a Bill.

People say that there should not be opposition to this Bill. If one wants to make bad law, the best way to go about it is to delete democratic opposition within this Chamber. Opposition is a form of test during a Bill's development. It is a rigorous way of ensuring that the legislation will function. No one should be shy to challenge this Bill rigorously.

Deputy Thomas Byrne's desire to get this through the Dáil as fast as possible is more about the civil war within Fianna Fáil on this and other issues than the sovereignty of the people. What he has forgotten is that, even if the Bill passes, this issue will not go away. Once we cross the Rubicon regarding life and take the massive decision, which the Minister has done, to move from a position of every human life being protected in law to one in which we can legally end human life, restrictions become increasingly meaningless.

Deputies have admitted that they are on a journey. There is no doubt in my mind that they will continue on that journey over the next while. There is still a strong pro-abortion lobby looking to push for further deregulation. Mark my words - abortion will be a live political issue for years to come. The pro-life Deputies who believe that, by keeping their heads down now, this will go away are mistaken.

I wish to turn my attention to the position in the Bill. The Bill defines abortion as "a medical procedure which is intended to end the life of a foetus". That is the most important sentence within the Bill. The Minister must agree that it is a sobering line. Did he ever think that he would end up voting for that particular line to be put into legislation or that it would be a part of his legacy? The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, said in the media that it was not a life, but a "potential life". That is not what the Bill says, though. It says that it is an actual life. That is all that any of us has. I always bang on in the Chamber about how every time we vote on a particular issue, we are directly responsible for what happens as a result. If we vote for this legislation, we will be directly responsible for the outcome of that clause each time.

It is interesting that the Minister, Deputy Harris, continually couches this in terms of being a step forward for women's healthcare. It is staggering that he is making sometimes giddy videos regarding such steps forward while there are 350,000 women languishing on waiting lists in the healthcare system. It jars with many people that millions of euro of taxpayers' money will be spent providing abortions that they conscientiously oppose while it seems that no money can be found for emergency scoliosis operations for children or-----

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