Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be as brief as possible. This has been a very respectful debate in this House on all sides, as people have voiced their very strong views on what is a very sensitive, emotive and human matter. I acknowledge all colleagues who have given their views, whatever side of the argument on which they lie. I will give a very personal view and I speak as a father, a husband and a brother. I put on the record that I certainly love all the women in my life. I have loved as the son of a mother, as a father, as a brother and as a husband. We should not try to denigrate any person that might hold a view that he or she loves the women in his or her life any less because of a particular view.

I acknowledge the strong arguments that have been made on the need to address crisis pregnancies in this society, and we all agree on that. I am very concerned about crisis pregnancies arising from rape, incest, fatal foetal abnormality and other such conditions. I respect the voice of women who have suffered enormously in this country from many perspectives, and certainly with respect to this matter. I have been conflicted over a period since the protection of life during pregnancy legislation was passed in 2013. I felt at the time that supporting the Bill was right, but since then I have been conflicted on how far, as a society and country, we are prepared to go, taking into consideration the very genuinely held views that people hold with regard to this matter. Having carefully considered this, I still have fundamental concerns about the right to life of the unborn child.

There are very cogent arguments being made by very good speakers on all sides tonight. I still believe the unborn - I consider the unborn to be a baby - has no voice in this debate. I feel I should speak on behalf of the unborn child in that respect. There are crisis pregnancies and I welcome the genuine effort made by the Minister in committing additional supports and resources to women in crisis pregnancies. We cannot just pay lip service to that. I commend the Minister on genuinely putting in place those resources, strategies and initiatives to address these matters. We can all agree this will help to avoid any abortion or unwanted pregnancies in this country, although there will always be some. The question is how best to deal with them.

I am concerned about the debate that will go from the Oireachtas to the public domain, as the extremes in that debate may make it very emotive, with many mistruths and misinformation coming into play. As a person with concerns, I will not be a party to any side in the debate that tries to misinform, agitate, upset or confuse the public in any way. We need a respectful and honest debate and all sides should engage in the referendum in that respect. When the referendum comes about, I will vote against the repeal of the eighth amendment because of my fundamental views. Unrestricted abortion of a viable life up to 12 weeks is not what we should have in this society. Colleagues should believe me when I say I have tried to really understand the other sides of the argument. People deserve to know the position of public representatives. On tonight's vote as to whether to give the people a say in this, I will support the holding of a referendum. I respect the rights of women and men throughout this society to have their say on an issue I know is sensitive. It is about having a say on a matter on which they have not had the opportunity to decide for over three decades. For that reason I support the holding of a referendum.

I remain steadfast in my position to protect fundamentally the life of the unborn with my vote, although it is only one vote. I am sure there will be much debate between now and the referendum. I hope there will be respect on all sides to allow the Irish people to come to a conclusion we can all live with it so we can accept that decision as democrats.