MATT COOPER

Our Tánaiste faces a moral dilemma: to back his party... or his principles?

THE abortion referendum is going to provoke a crisis of conscience for many politicians but few are likely to be in a more difficult position than Tánaiste Simon Coveney, as the most senior politician with serious reservations.

He was a guest on the Tonight Show on TV3 last Wednesday evening, after the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution had voted on a series of recommendations arising from its excellently conducted deliberations.

Surprisingly, Coveney wanted to sidestep many of the legitimate questions that Ivan Yates and I put to him about what he wanted and how he would vote, accusing me in particular of looking for a headline.

I replied that I was merely looking for clarity on his position, as deputy to An Taoiseach, the second most senior person in our Government.

He said he wanted to wait until after publication of the report complied by the Oireachtas committee – which happens tomorrow – and then, once he had read it, he would confirm his position. That might take until the New Year.

That may seem fair enough, especially as few people outside of the committee have heard all of the evidence. And Coveney has been very busy in his brief as Minister for Foreign Affairs, especially given the Brexit crisis of recent weeks.

Definitive

But it has been hard to avoid what has been going on at the committee, or the import of its early decision to recommend that the Eighth Amendment be removed from the Constitution.

In addition there were some very specific recommendations voted upon and passed last week, which effectively suggested the legalisation of abortion in Ireland in certain situations. That is putting it up to the politicians and it is not just in Fine Gael where prominent figures are trying to avoid making a definitive statement as to what they want or will support.

Indeed, it is not implausible to suggest that Leo Varadkar himself might not support the repeal of the Eighth and the introduction of abortion – even in limited circumstances – if he was not Taoiseach, given his previous comments.

However, as Taoiseach of a government committed to holding a referendum, he has no option but to support and campaign for repeal. Not to do so would be to invite the type of ridicule that attached to the late Liam Cosgrave. As taoiseach, his government introduced legislation to allow for limited contraception but, to the shock of everyone, Cosgrave was among those who walked into the opposition lobby to vote against it.

Varadkar is giving his ministers a similar 21st-century out. He has said they will be free to vote in the Dáil against the holding of any abortion referendum, even if they are part of the Cabinet that comes to a collective decision to hold the national vote.

Even if a majority of the Dáil decides to hold the referendum, those ministers can still campaign against it being carried if they want. This is almost unprecedented, but then it is a highly emotive issue. It raises the question as to how many politicians are going to allow their personal beliefs to trump the political requirement of the party they serve, or vice versa. Are Government ministers going to campaign for something in which they do not believe?

Mistake

While the Government is not bound by the report of the committee, it has said it will be guided by its recommendations. In the event that it accepts the committee’s proposal to allow abortions up to 12 weeks without restriction, the legislation would allow for a GP-led service to be introduced. It is also understood that the Department of Health has prepared legislation to decriminalise abortion – as recommended by the committee – and to allow for abortions in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.

So far, we know that seven ministers – Simon Harris, Josepha Madigan, Charlie Flanagan, Eoghan Murphy, Regina Doherty (all from Fine Gael), Shane Ross and Katherine Zappone – are all in favour of the repeal proposals made by the com- mittee. One of the most interesting contributions came from Flanagan, the son of Oliver J, one of the most passionate Catholic advocates of 20th-century Irish politics. He has argued that the issue to be debated is primarily one of a woman’s health issue. He has also stated that politicians made a ‘real and enduring mistake’ by allowing the Eighth Amendment to be inserted into the Constitution and that the legal and medical consequences of doing so were not adequately discussed and were never foreseen.

But that doesn’t mean others will share his position and the suspicion is that Coveney and others might sign off on a referendum but campaign against it if the accompanying legislation brings in an abortion regime which they regard as permissive.

Wishful

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is another who is going to have to get off the fence. He has said that he ‘comes from a background which in many respects has always been a pro-life, but I have never been absolutist or judgmental’. He has also said: ‘There is the other side of the equation as well. There is a baby in the womb. Some people would call it a foetus right up to the birth. I couldn’t do that.’ That would seem to imply where he is going; with a general election looming, Coveney, who competes in the same constituency, may have his opponent’s position in mind as well as his own conscience.

Health Minister Simon Harris may be correct when he said that ‘we should respect different perspectives and opinions which are honestly held’, but he may be being optimistic if he thinks that will be the guiding principle in the debate that ensues. Coveney has said much the same thing in opining that ‘frankly it would be helpful if people weren’t declaring victories on anything’ – but his hope that ‘a consensus across the country that can result in a successful referendum’ can be built may be wishful thinking.

Coveney has shown himself to be loyal to Varadkar since he lost the leadership contest to his rival earlier in the year, although that loyalty is not personal but borne by a belief that he should not be responsible for divisions within Fine Gael. He showed that most when he went on RTÉ’s Prime Time on one of the defining nights of the Frances Fitzgerald Garda debacle and loyally defended her – and by extension Varadkar – when nobody else would do so. He got his reward with promotion when she resigned as tánaiste the following day. Such pragmatism may come to the fore again when and if he’s required to support Varadkar’s position on the referendum. But it is not certain.