The Government is to force its abortion proposals through a Dβil Committee within a week despite Opposition demands that amendments be considered by the full Dβil with no time limit.
However, last night during the most passionate Dβil debate this year, the Tβnaiste, Ms Harney, last night held back from giving unconditional support to the Taoiseach's wish to hold a referendum.
"It would be unwise to proceed finally to a referendum unless sufficiently broad, middle ground support for the proposition is apparent", she told a heated Dβil debate.
However, she added that the present Government proposal "has the potential to earn such support, if we proceed with a reasonable debate and if the issues are well understood by the public".
Mr Ahern moved yesterday to ensure his planned abortion referendum would pass all parliamentary stages by Christmas, leaving open the prospect of a poll in February 2002, believed to be his favoured time.
During an hour-long Dβil row on the parliamentary procedure, the Taoiseach proposed that the so-called committee stage - at which detailed amendments are considered - would be time-limited and would not take place in the Dβil chamber, but in the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.
Despite angry Opposition claims that he was going back on a promise of an open-ended debate, the Government parties, with the support of the four Independents, ensured the Government's timetable was approved by the Dβil last night. The committee stage is now set to conclude on Thursday week, November 29th, when the Bill will come back to the Dβil for report and final stages. The Bill will then be debated in the Seanad before being sent to the President before Christmas for signing into law. The Dβil rejected a Fine Gael motion calling for consideration of the issue to be deferred for three months, thus ensuring the Government's motion to approve second stage was accepted by default without a vote.
The procedure ensured that Fine Gael, which is divided on whether a referendum should be held, has not yet had to vote on the substantive issue. The party's health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, conceded yesterday there was "divergence" within the party on the proposed referendum which would roll back the X case by eliminating threatened suicide as a ground for abortion.
Earlier, the Taoiseach rejected a proposal from Labour Party leader, Mr Quinn, that the Dβil return to debate the issue on January 10th - three weeks earlier than planned. Such a delay would threaten plans to hold the referendum in February.
A spokesman last night defended the Government's plan, saying every deputy was entitled to attend the committee and to speak, and that the committee had six working days during which it could "sit for as long as they like" to consider the matter.
"The Opposition has tabled 30 amendments already," he said, on top of the queries raised with the Taoiseach in recent weeks.
Much of the debate on these matters would be highly technical, he said, "and a committee is the proper forum for technical amendments".
Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, branded the Government plan as "a disgrace", saying it was "unprecedented that the committee stage of a Bill advocating a change to the Constitution is not taken in plenary before the House".