‘We should be proud of Eighth’, says former taoiseach
FORMER taoiseach John Bruton has spoken out strongly against repeal of the Eighth amendment and said Ireland should be ‘proud’ that protection of the unborn is enshrined in its constitution.
Mr Bruton said yesterday that before birth babies can ‘feel’ and are already developing their strength.
He said that to ‘arbitrarily’ set a point in the progress of a pregnancy before which ‘it’s okay to suppress that life is just not in accordance with the values of charity towards the weak… that have exemplified the Irish over the last many centuries.
‘It’s true that we are probably one of the few countries in the world that has, in our Constitution, an express recognition of the right to life of the unborn child, but that’s something we should be proud of,’ he said.
The former Fine Gael leader was speaking after attending, with his wife Finola, the episcopal ordination of the new Bishop of Ossory, Dermot Farrell, in Kilkenny city. Bishop Farrell was parish priest of Mr Bruton’s home parish, Dunboyne in Co. Meath, until his appointment in the diocese of Ossory.
He confirmed that he ‘won’t be voting in favour of repeal’ but did not want to make a prediction as to how the referendum will go. ‘Clearly there are divided opinions about this,’ he said.
‘I think if you accept that a child, before birth, is human, then you have to ask yourself, as a human, does it have human rights? If it is to have human rights, then surely the first right it must have is the right to life.’
It comes as Leo Varadkar yesterday insisted he can get abortion legislation passed in the lifetime of the Government, and is confident it will be done before the end of this year.
Speaking in Dallas, Texas during his US trip yesterday, he said: ‘I am confident that we can have a referendum in May and that would allow us to get legislation through within a matter of months.
‘I think we will have legislation passed; if you remember when I was elected as Taoiseach back in June, it was one of the things that I committed to do. I gave every
‘If it is human, it has right to life’
minister two or three things to focus on and one of the things that I gave the Minister for Health to focus on was having a referendum this year, ideally by the summer.
‘Notwithstanding a few delays along the way, we are actually on track, the legislation is now in the Dáil and I am confident that we can have referendum in May and that would allow us to get legislation through within a matter of months.
‘We have been working away on that legislation.
‘The policy paper is already done [and we] will be able to publish a draft... of [a] general scheme of the legislation. We plan to do that by the end of March and if there is a yes vote [in] the referendum, we would then have a couple of months to get that legislation through.
‘So I certainly think that can all be done within this calendar year, within the lifetime of this Government,’ Mr Varadkar said.
Asked about the fact that Sinn Féin will not hold an Ard Fheis to decide on its view surrounding any legislation that might come after a Yes vote, Mr Varadkar said: ‘The decision that my party has taken and [that] I have taken for Fine Gael, is that we are going to have a free vote and people are free to vote as they wish, both on the referendum Bill and on any legislation that will follow.
‘Sinn Féin has decided that they are going to take a party position; that really is up to them. It’s not for me to tell any party what position to take, but I don’t think that it affects the referendum in any way,’ he said.
‘The basic question remains the same regardless of what any party position is. There is a referendum that is going to happen, hopefully by the end of May.’