The father of the traveller girl at the centre of the abortion controversy yesterday said he had not seen or spoken to her for six weeks. Replying to a question on RTE's This Week programme he said: "The last time I have seen my daughter - remember that we have 12 children and somebody has to mind the kids so obviously somebody has to be there at all times - the last time I have seen my daughter was about six weeks ago."
He also threatened legal action against the Eastern Health Board if his daughter went to England for an abortion and suffered any adverse effects from it.
He wanted to make it very clear, he said, "that if anything happens to my daughter if she is brought to England, mentally, physically, that the Eastern Health Board will be in for a lawsuit.
"I would also like to state that if my daughter is taken to England we would like the body of the baby brought home and to be buried in the travelling conditions."
He said of his daughter: "She does not realise the danger of what an abortion can do to her. She doesn't realise that she's carrying a baby. She's very mature for her age. You would take her for 16 or 17 years old. She's very, very physically and mentally educated in the travelling people's way."
Asked if this meant she was mature enough to make up her own mind, he said: "I think she would if she was let make her own mind up."
He denied she had ever said she wanted an abortion. "No, she didn't actually say she wanted an abortion. She never even mentioned an abortion."
He also denied that he himself had ever wanted her to have an abortion. "We were never for abortion, but it was just the situation that we were in," he said.
If his daughter gave birth, her child would be reared as a member of his family, he said. "We are willing to give her all the support. We will rear our daughter the way we reared all our children."