The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, said last night that he should have been more careful about the language he had used in his earlier comments about women using suicide as grounds for abortion. He said he regretted his comments had been misinterpreted.
Mr Fahey provoked controversy with his comments, made during an interview on North West Radio, that there had been "several attempts" over the past 12 months by women to have abortions on the grounds of being suicidal.
He said he was aware of one occasion where a doctor had refused to carry out an abortion in this situation.
The Minister told The Irish Times last night that he was referring to "a general comment by a member of the medical profession" who said he had a patient who was suicidal and wanted an abortion.
"He got her the medical and psychiatric treatment in order that she would not go down that road and he mentioned that he was aware of other similar cases," Mr Fahey said.
He said he regretted that his comments had been misinterpreted by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan.
"But I accept that I should have been more careful with the language I used," Mr Fahey said. He said he was making the point that abortion was not the answer for women who were feeling suicidal.
His comments came during a live debate recorded at Dáil studios between Mr Fahey, Mr Noonan and the Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn. After a general discussion on a range of issues affecting the north-west, the interviewer asked Mr Fahey why people had not yet received any information explaining the referendum and suggested that many people did not understand the technicalities of it.
Mr Fahey said literature would be delivered to homes over the coming weeks and added: "It is a very simple situation where in this country, even in the past 12 months, there have been several attempts to have abortion on the basis of people being suicidal. That's not a legal situation that can continue.
"We've a situation at the moment where the woman's life doesn't receive parity over the life of the unborn where the woman's life is in danger. That cannot continue."
Mr Noonan then interrupted Mr Fahey to ask where and when the several attempts to have abortion on suicide grounds had occurred.
The Minister continued: "There were several attempts throughout the country, and it was only because of the fact that the medical profession were able to deal with that situation