The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday he believed Irish people were mature enough to have a calm debate on the forthcoming abortion referendum.
Mr Ahern said the Government's proffered legislation on the issue offered a "very good set of proposals". He had been at the centre of working on those proposals and throughout that time people had been calm about it, he said. "I have been very much to the centre of the work on this for the last four years and people have been absolutely calm about it so there is no reason that for the last four weeks that they should be other than that, and I think they will be."
He added: "We are all mature enough to be able to argue it."
Mr Ahern said he naturally wished to see the referendum, to be held on March 6th, passed. It was a good set of proposals that had come about as a result of an enormous amount of work by people including obstetricians, gynaecologists, legal experts, doctors, and social workers.
"For the first time in law it gives absolute certainty to the medical profession to the rights of women that they get best medical practice and the medical practice protects their lives, which I think is of absolute importance.
"It clarifies, in law, the issue of the morning-after pill, and it also rows back on the Supreme Court judgment on the suicide issue. I think we have seen what happens in other countries. You get into a position where you have liberal abortion in the country."
Mr Ahern said he did not want to see that happen here. "It is a question for people to make up their judgment on it. Hopefully it will be a calm debate and hopefully it will be a yes vote."
Meanwhile the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, described some of the language used by the Adelaide Society in a letter to him, expressing concern about the abortion referendum as "hyped". Mr Martin said he only received the letter yesterday and he had read its contents first in The Irish Times.
He said there were some sections of the letter he would "take issue with", given that the Government was looking for a reasonable and calm debate. He was somewhat surprised the society did not at least acknowledge that in the area of crisis pregnancies, the Government had taken a significant step in establishing the Crisis Pregnancy Agency.
"That's the first significant step by a government to deal comprehensively with that particular issue and that was not acknowledged in the correspondence. I think we would take issue with the reference that we are somehow trying to re-inforce the negativities about crisis pregnancies."
Speaking on RTÉ radio, Mr Martin said post-abortion counselling was a central part of the agency's remit. "Clearly society has a major task ahead in encouraging women to access health services for their own personal health and well being." The letter from the Adelaide Society made no reference to that, he said.