GOVERNMENT and Opposition spokesmen have refused to comment on sharp criticism by a Supreme Court judge of successive governments for failing to introduce legislation on abortion.
Mr Justice Ronan Keane said yesterday that while almost five years had elapsed since the judgment in the X case, successive governments had failed to introduce any form of statutory regime. "It is not the function of this court to supplement this governmental and legislative inertia by the making of orders so uncertain and fraught with difficulty", he said.
He was delivering his judgment in the Supreme Court appeal by three students unions against an injunction granted to the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), which restrained the students from publishing and distributing information on abortion.
Each of the five Supreme Court judges allowed the appeal.
The three Government parties and Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats declined to comment when contacted last night. A Government source said that it had met its commitments on the issue under the Programme for Government. These included the introduction of legislation on abortion information.
The substantive issue of whether and how to legislate for the X case ruling that abortion was permissible in the particular circumstances of that case had been referred to the Review Group on the Constitution, the source said. That group had reported and the matter was now being considered by the all-party committee on constitutional reform.
It is clear, however, that the Government will not make any move to introduce legislation on the matter before a general election.
Before the Supreme Court judgment was handed down yesterday afternoon the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, criticised the Government for "apparently doing absolutely nothing" about the abortion issue since coming to office over two years ago. He denied that Fianna Fail was in a similar position, even though it has steadfastly refused to say what Fit would do.