Independent: The Independent European Parliament candidate for the South constituency, Ms Kathy Sinnott, confirmed yesterday she had campaigned against divorce in the 1996 referendum, but said she accepted the result and no longer viewed divorce as a live issue in Irish politics.
"I came with my own experience of marital difficulties and the fear of poverty that many women face, but I accepted the result of the divorce referendum." she told The Irish Times.
Questioned about her views on contraception, Ms Sinnott said she had never campaigned on the issue and believed it was a private matter. "I'm not going to get involved in what people do in their private lives," she said, adding that it, too, was no longer a live issue.
Ms Sinnott, who came to national prominence when she took a court case over the Government's failure to provide appropriate education for her autistic son, Jamie, is in contention for the final seat in the South constituency.
She said her campaign was costing between €35,000 and €40,000, with most of the money coming in donations of €50 to €100 from individuals.
She had also received "four or five" donations of over €500 from disability groups. "I've also received three donations from my father and two sisters in the US, totalling $3,500, and I've taken out two credit union loans of €10,000 each.
"That brings it to around €38,000," said Ms Sinnott.
She confirmed that many people from the pro-life movement had canvassed for her, but so, too, had members of disability groups and environmentalists, as well as some former political activists from Fianna Fáil and several local election independent candidates.
She pointed to her election literature which clearly states her opposition to abortion, euthanasia and research on human embryos and any attempt by the European Union to promote or introduce them.
"Abortion is a live issue and euthanasia is a live issue. That's part of the approach to the greying population," she said. "Embryo research is a live issue, and I would have put down human cloning, too.
"The reason abortion is mentioned in my literature is because it's a very large European issue. I've had a very favourable response to it, even from people who would feel that they're not anti-abortion," said Ms Sinnott.
She said she strongly rejected what she described as an attempt by Labour candidate Senator Brendan Ryan to categorise her because of her pro-life views and insisted that she was more than just a single-issue candidate.