The issue of an abortion referendum will not be discussed at today's Cabinet meeting, the last before the summer recess, the Taoiseach said yesterday. Mr Ahern said the Cabinet sub-committee, established to propose options on how to deal with the issue, had not yet completed its report.
According to one Government source, the committee has met on six occasions since the publication of the report on abortion of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution in November.
Most of the discussion at recent meetings has centred around when an abortion referendum might be held but the issue was unresolved.
The committee agreed more than seven months ago to accept one of the proposals in the all-party report to establish an agency to reduce crisis pregnancies in the State. However, no announcement has been made on the matter.
Asked yesterday if abortion would be on the agenda for today's Cabinet meeting, Mr Ahern said: "There is so much on tomorrow's agenda . . . I don't think we'll get to it".
Mr Ahern said he did not believe the cabinet sub-committee's report was "quite finished".
However, last week, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said the sub-committee still aimed to report by the end of the month, subject to conditions.
Speaking after comments from the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, which suggested she had little enthusiasm for an early poll, Mr Martin said: "We have worked on this over the last couple of months and we have more or less completed our work at this stage".
At that time, Mr Ahern said the Cabinet would not look at the issue until after the summer break, and even then would have to have "a long chat" before reaching conclusions.
He said consultations would begin after the summer break - which casts doubt on whether a poll can be held in the autumn.
Independent TD Ms Mildred Fox said yesterday she was still optimistic the Government would announce a referendum shortly after the Dail resumes in October.
She said people "need to know where they stand". She believed the Government was "fearful" that if it announced a decision to have a referendum too soon, "there would be nearly too much debate with the same ugly scenes we had in the 1980s".