Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We should all welcome the decision by Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive. We could see it as a small step for man, perhaps, but a giant leap for womenkind. We should not speak too soon, however. I recall the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, when he arrived in Italy some years ago, seeing himself as a self-styled emancipator of women, with an all-female bodyguard. He asked to meet about a thousand Italian women leaders in the world of culture and politics. When he was asked about the ban on women driving in Islamic states, he got polite applause for asking why these women should have to apply to the head of state for the right to drive a car. Then he went and ruined it all by saying that it was a matter for women's husbands or brothers to decide. We will just have to wait and see what happens in Saudi Arabia.

A more credible voice for human rights and equality is John Pittock, the former chairman of Deloitte, who has resigned his membership of the audit committee of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. He has done so because he does not want to be associated with the contradiction of having a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs who is radically in favour of repealing the eighth amendment. He said

The tiny baby girl or boy needs to be protected by our laws just like every other member of society. Unborn children should not be discriminated against and suffer child abuse but should be given the choice of a happy life. In England and Wales, where they brought in the killing of unborn babies, which was legalised in 1967, supposedly on restricted grounds, we now have a situation where one in every five unborn babies is killed.

The eighth amendment protects the lives of pregnant women and allows our doctors to perform all necessary life-saving care. John Pittock said it was a disgrace that the person to whom the Government had bizarrely given responsibility for safeguarding and protecting children should promote the killing of unborn babies.