ABORTION BILL GETS GO-AHEAD
Cabinet gives approval for vote as minister backs repeal campaign
THE Cabinet yesterday gave unanimous approval to a Bill proposing the replacement of Ireland’s Eighth Amendment.
And Simon Harris paid tribute to those he said had “suffered” in the past because of the provision guaranteeing the equal right to life of mothers and their unborn babies.
The Health Minister was flanked by colleagues Richard Bruton, Regina Doherty, Josepha Madigan and Charlie Flanagan as he made the announcement in the courtyard of Government Buildings yesterday.
He said he would be campaigning “vigorously” for a Yes vote in the referendum which is on schedule to be held before the end of May.
His fellow ministers said they would also be working for a Yes vote.
The wording of the referendum proposal will see the Eighth taken out of the Constitution and replaced with a new clause giving permission to the Government to legislate for abortion.
The country is set for a divisive campaign as pro-life and pro-choice groups battle to convince voters to either retain or remove the amendment.
The Government will tell the public in the coming days they intend to legislate for unlimited abortions up to 12 weeks if they are given the go-ahead with a Yes vote.
Mr Harris said: “The women we’re thinking of today, on International Women’s Day, are the women who have courageously told their personal, sensitive stories.
“Women like Amanda Mellet and Siobhan Whelan, who felt they needed to go to the United Nations to highlight how they’d been treated in this country in relation to their crisis pregnancies.
“Women like Savita Halappanavar who never even had the opportunity to tell her story in relation to the way she was treated in relation to her pregnancy in this country.”
The Coalition to Repeal the Eighth welcomed the Cabinet decision but the Pro Life Campaign is opposed to any repeal.
■ Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been slammed by Fianna Fail for hitting the road today with his spin machine, the Strategic Communications Unit, instead of staying in Dublin to debate the abortion referendum bill.
»»unmarried irish females at record high »»More women than men now live in country
MORE independent single women now live in Ireland than ever before, it was revealed yesterday.
The 2016 Census figures showed there were 2,407,437 women in the country, an increase of 91,884 or 4% on the previous study in 2011.
And of those registered, a total of 1,236,634 of them are single, an increase of 3% on previous figures.
The numbers, released on International Women’s Day, also showed there are more women than men in the
State with the overall sex ratio of 97.8 males for every 100 females. There were 30,617 more women than men in the Dublin region alone, the largest difference being in Dublin City, which had just over 10,000 more.
Cork also had significantly more women than men with 5,518 or 2% while Galway city had 3,068 or 7.5% more women than men.
The Central Statistics Office also revealed women are more educated than men and are also living longer than ever before. In general, of males. And among those aged 25 to 39, women tended to stay in education longer than men too.
Figures showed 314,258 have a bachelor’s degree, 164,431 have a postgraduate diploma or degree and 12,743 have a doctorate. The Census statistics also show women are more caring than ever when it comes to looking after those in need with 118,151 working as carers, making up 60.5% of the overall figure.
A total of 372 women lived to 100 in 2016, an 11% increase on five years previous.
In 1926 female life expectancy was 57.9 years of age.
However, since between then and 2011 there was an increase of 24.9 years with women now predicted to reach 82.8 years of age.
This is four years more than men who on average live until 78.4 years of age.
And while Irish women made up
the vast majority of the female population, Polish women now living in Ireland made up 60,655, followed by those from the UK at 50,389 and Lithuanian at 19,633.
This year marks the 110th anniversary of the first International Women’s Day.
It started out as a protest in New York in 1908 but the high-profile campaign is still as significant as ever as awareness about gender inequality is raised around the world.
Some 110 years later and 2018 is set to go down in the Irish history books.