Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to wish the Taoiseach well on the day that he steps aside. I also note that today the Attorney General, Ms Máire Whelan, has been appointed to the Court of Appeal and I wish her and her family well. Hers has not always been an easy role but she provided good public service.

I welcome the announcement of the names of the Seanad Members of the Oireachtas committee that will examine the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly. It would be too much to say that I am looking forward to this particular committee and life on it, given the life, death and grim nature of some of the recommendations it will have to consider. However, I am sure that all members will do their best. I am surprised, if I heard her correctly, that Senator Bacik seems to be suggesting that a date should be set for a referendum now, in advance of the deliberations of the committee. Considering the very radical nature of some of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly and that some of those recommendations seem to have come after zero consideration of the issues upon which the assembly was recommending, I would have thought the Oireachtas committee will have to consider, first of all, the respect it should give to the particular recommendations that came from the assembly. I would have thought that it is at least theoretically possible that we would come to the conclusion that there should not be a referendum. To suggest, in advance of the work of the committee, that we should set the date for a referendum seems to me to be bizarre indeed.

The sad story of recent days has, no doubt, prompted some of the comments. That story shows that trying to protect two lives is always a difficult business. Whatever the merits of what went on - I do not know the full details and I doubt that anyone else here does - it seems that there was at least an attempt to protect a mother's life. I am very sorry that nobody who has spoken so far has expressed any concern about the fate of the child that was involved in that story subsequently.

In conclusion, I agree that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act is very flawed. I pointed out the fact that predicating a right to abortion on the grounds of threatened suicide was always unmedical and always wrong. What we now need to do is re-grasp our idealism and see the 3,265 women, referred to by Senator Bacik, who travelled abroad last year as tragedies but that figure is coming down. For an equivalent population, Britain would be having 16,000 abortions a year so we need to conclude that the eighth amendment has saved thousands of lives. That will also have to be part of our deliberations on this committee.