Abortion ‘no red-line issue’

HOLDING a referendum on the Eighth Amendment on abortion will not be a red-line issue for the party in any future coalition talks, Joan Burton has said.

The party will include the holding of such a referendum in its manifesto but it will not be a make-orbreak issue for entering any new coalition.

Last week Taoiseach Enda Kenny showed his party’s more conservative side when he said it would not be committing to a referendum on the Eighth Amendment in a new government term.

Ms Burton, the Labour leader, said: ‘The Labour party’s conditions around going into government are around renewal, recovery and get- ting people back to work. On the social reform side, we’ve very successfully... since the outset of this government brought through the marriage equality referendum.

‘In the Labour party we’ve a longstanding tradition in relation to the Eighth Amendment. We urged voters at the time not to vote for it.

‘We’ve a very detailed motion at the party conference, a working document at the party conference recommending the repeal of the Eighth so we will have that in our election platform.

‘Hopefully we will be a key part of the next government and certainly we’ll be discussing that as part of negotiations, but I personally never use terms like “red line”.’