Call for Oireachtas debate on abortion

SEANAD:IVANA BACIK (Lab) said she hoped the expert group being set up to examine the implications of the abortion case ruling of the European Court of Human Rights would have a tight time frame for the production of its report.

“For far too long the Oireachtas has failed to grasp the nettle of this issue of abortion. It is time we did so.” The expert group was part of the strategy of addressing the matter, but the issue needed to be debated in the House, preferably at an early stage.

Rónán Mullen (Ind) said expert group or not, this was an issue that would have to go back to the people “because the context for this issue is that Ireland has much more to teach its European partners than it has to learn on the issue of abortion. We have managed to honour human rights, in the true sense, by protecting the life of the unborn while also having the lowest maternal mortality in the world.”

It was up to Ireland to determine its precise law in relation to abortion, he added.

On Bloomsday, David Norris (Ind) said he had received the support of Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan for the renaming of Terminal Two in Dublin as the James Joyce International Airport.

He hoped the House would back dropping the current “boring name”, in view of the fact that Dublin had been recognised by Unesco as a city of literature.

Seanad leader Maurice Cummins (FG) said some nominations had yet to be made to the Oireachtas consultation group which would be involved in drawing up a commemorative programme to mark the centenaries of events in the turbulent history leading up to the foundation of the State.

Party leaders had been asked last month to nominate representatives to the group, which would be chaired by Mr Deenihan. The group was expected to hold its first meeting later this month or early in July.

Thomas Byrne (FF) asked why the newspaper industry was being given a significant tax break in the former of a lower VAT rate with no “comeback” as to whether the price of newspapers would be reduced or whether more people would be employed. Sizeable tax breaks were being given to businesses as ordinary people were being hammered on their pensions.

Mr Byrne made an unsuccessful attempt to amend the Finance Bill to require regular reporting to the Dáil on the Government’s job-creation strategy.