Simon Harris expects Ministers to be united on eighth amendment

Minister for Health Simon Harris has said he expects all Ministers to support the Government's position on the eighth amendment to the Constitution on abortion.

Mr Harris was responding to news that members of the Independent Alliance will seek a free vote on an upcoming AAA-PBP Dáil motion seeking to repeal the amendment.

Mr Harris said the programme for government committed to the establishment of a citizen’s assembly to examine the issue. The eighth amendment, passed in 1983, guarantees the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child.

Mr Harris said the assembly would begin its work in October and he did not think “it would be appropriate as a Government to be supporting any parallel or alternative process”.

“I expect all members of Government to stand by the programme for government, which is very clear cut,” he told reporters in Dublin on Tuesday. “It is not a static commitment that we are moving forward with.”

Respectful debate

Mr Harris said he hoped the assembly would allow for a respectful debate and that the tone of some of the correspondence received by politicians was disappointing.

He insisted the assembly would allow people to have their say on this issue.

Independent Alliance Minister of State Finian McGrath on Monday said the group was “not looking for a row” about the matter.

However, it is expected that having won the concession of a free vote on a Dáil motion on abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities in July, some Independent Ministers will support the forthcoming motion seeking a referendum on abortion.

There will be contacts between the Independents and Fine Gael over the coming weeks designed to avoid difficulties between the two sides over a range of issues in the autumn, but the abortion motion is likely to be problematic.

The Coalition experienced its most serious division so far in July when some Independent Alliance Ministers insisted on supporting a Bill proposed by Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallace which sought to legalise abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

The Attorney General advised that the Bill was unconstitutional, but the Independent Ministers ignored her advice.