Taoiseach Enda Kenny is continuing to insist that Ministers should not flout collective Cabinet responsibility when it comes to a Dáil vote on abortion later this week.

Government sources say that Mr Kenny will take a strong line on the issue at Cabinet tomorrow despite indications that Independent Alliance members Shane Ross and Finian McGrath are not prepared to vote with their Government colleagues.

“I don’t see the Government breaking up over this but Enda is determined to lay down a marker that it is simply unacceptable for Ministers to defy collective responsibility,” said one Minister.

Another Minister said there was real anger in Cabinet at the way Attorney General Máire Whelan had been pilloried for giving advice that is clearly correct and in line with Supreme Court judgments.

“The Government won’t collapse on this but our credibility will take a bad knock if Ross and Finian vote for the [Mick] Wallace Bill against the advice of their own AG,” the Minister added.

At the weekend the Independent Alliance TDs and councillors met in Athlone and backed the decisions of their Ministers to insist on a free vote on a Private Member’s Bill brought by Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace which would allow abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

Abstain

While Independent Alliance junior Minister John Halligan yesterday reiterated his determination to vote for the Bill, Fine Gael Ministers are still hopeful that Mr Ross and Mr McGrath will abstain rather than vote against the Government.

Two of the three Independent Cabinet Ministers in the Fine Gael-led government, Katherine Zappone and Denis Naughten, have accepted the Attorney General’s advice and will oppose the abortion Bill but the Independent Alliance has taken a very different approach.

“The Independent Alliance believe we should have a free vote on this to vote how we wish. It is unfortunate there will be conflict between us and the Government over this,” said Mr Halligan.

“There’s a new Dáil and votes are supposed to be taken on matters of conscience and I think that is what the Government should do,” he said.

Mr Halligan pointed to the meeting of the Independent Alliance at the weekend at which councillors and TDs all backed the position that there should be a free vote.

He insisted that despite Mr Ross being a Cabinet Minister he could still vote against the Government.

“We find it unacceptable that the Government would say you can’t have a free vote on it. We are not Fine Gael, we are the Independent Alliance,” he said.

Mr Halligan said there is nothing in the programme for partnership agreed with Fine Gael that prevents a free vote, despite Mr Kenny saying he would not allow one.

“That’s okay for Enda Kenny but I am saying that as part of Government we are still an independent entity. We have agreed to support the Government on votes of confidence and budgets and on the programme for Government. In that programme for government, nobody can point out for me the words fatal foetal abnormality – it is not in it.

“I cannot understand why everybody else has a free vote on it. Fine Gael members say privately they wish there was a free vote. It is the prerogative of Fine Gael to say to its members we are not giving a free vote but that does not stand with the Independent Alliance,” he said.

“We are looking for leeway on this as it is a huge issue of conscience for us,” he said.