Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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211. To ask the Minister for Health if a reply will issue to correspondence from a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6570/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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At a special Cabinet meeting on 29 January, the Government approved the holding of a referendum on Article 40.3.3 in early summer 2018 subject to the timely passage of a Constitutional Amendment Bill on the matter by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

I will now prepare a Referendum Bill to amend the Constitution. The Bill will propose that 40.3.3 of the Constitution is deleted in its entirety and include an additional clause into the Constitution confirming that the Oireachtas may regulate for the termination of pregnancy. The jurisdiction of the courts will not be ousted by this text, and it will not restrict rights of access to the courts. Legislation enacted post-amendment would remain subject to review by the courts like any other legislation.

On foetal abnormality, the Committee recommended that where the unborn child is diagnosed with a foetal abnormality that is likely to result in death before or shortly after birth, it should be lawful to terminate a pregnancy, without gestational limit . Where there is a diagnosis of a foetal abnormality that is notlikely to result in death before or shortly after birth, the Committee recommended that the law should notprovide for the termination of pregnancy.