Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the passage of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill yesterday. I am conscious that it must go back to the Dáil so that the amendments to it can be passed there. I compliment Senator Barrett on having some important amendments accepted, in support of which a number of Senators spoke during the Committee Stage debate. Those amendments will ensure greater scrutiny by both Houses of the Oireachtas over some of the reporting mechanisms in the Bill. It is great to see this Bill finally being put in place. It has long been promised and will provide for a much stronger framework - a proper statutory framework - for the meeting of our emissions targets. I hope we will see great progress made at the Paris talks on climate change next week. I also hope that we will have time in the New Year for a debate on the outcome of those talks in the context of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill, which has now been passed by this House and which will have become law by January 2016.

Finally, I was pleased to launch, along with Labour Women and former Members of this House, Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness, Ms Mary Henry and Dr. Peter Boylan, legislation produced by Labour Women on the repeal of the eighth amendment, which sets out the framework within which legal terminations of pregnancy would be provided for upon repeal of that amendment. This is a crucial part of Labour Party policy and our manifesto states that we will be seeking repeal of the eighth amendment if elected to Government at the next general election. I would like the House to debate this matter in the new year, particularly in light of the comments made by the Taoiseach last night to the effect that he would support the concept of establishing a convention to examine this it. Many of us who were involved with the Constitutional Convention, particularly with regard to the issue of marriage equality, would be very supportive of such a mechanism. Whatever the mechanism, we need to see a referendum on repeal of the eighth amendment in the early course of the next Government.