Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

Senator O'Meara was at a wonderful meeting which we had in Thurles about a week ago. Two old ladies and an old gentleman in the audience raised that question. I respect people asking the question. They came in a spirit of inquiry and believing that something bad could happen to something they value. A protocol which Ireland attached to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, at the time when the X case was in full flight, stipulated that nothing in the treaty or treaties could override the relevant article of the Irish Constitution. Deriving from that I can make two sure statements.

There is no European competence for abortion, so it cannot be brought in. If there was, that clause, as long as the protocol remains, would exclude any provision for Ireland. As long as the protocol remains it is for the Irish, who own the Constitution and the debate, to change their mind or not. Our Irish mind and values will decide. Even more, a protocol, unlike a declaration, has the weight of law. Therefore, if someone went to the European Court of Justice and tried to do, through the Court of Justice, what they did not do through directives they could not win because the Court of Justice itself is precluded by law, under the protocol, from exercising a superior court right over the Irish Supreme Court. It is like a double yellow line – no way at all.