No resolution on abortion without Labour, says White

Minister for Communications Alex White has said the eighth constitutional amendment on abortion will not be repealed unless Labour is part of the next government.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr White said the upcoming general election would most likely decide which party or parties would govern with Fine Gael, something Sinn Féin had already ruled out.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the eighth amendment will not be repealed in the next Oireachtas unless we’re in that government,” he said.

The eighth amendment to the Constitution in 1983 inserted article 40.3.3, which acknowledged the right to life of the unborn with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother.

Sinn Féin delegates voted in favour of repealing the amendment at the party’s ardfheis in Derry in March.

‘Right-wing’

However, Mr White insisted Sinn Féin was “campaigning for opposition” and the more votes that party got the “more right-wing” the next government would be.

"They say they won't coalesce with Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. They're silent about us. Presumably they would go into coalition with us if we were small and they were big, so no thank you," he said.

“Sometimes people in the trade union movement and others have called for left unity and said the Labour Party should look to left-wing parties, but . . . are people seriously asking us to consider coalition with parties and groups and individuals whose avowed aim is to destroy us?”

Siptu president Jack O’Connor said in February the left had a “once-in-a-century opportunity” to develop a political project aimed at winning the general election on a common platform.

Mr White said opinion poll results had been “dispiriting” and “frustrating” for Labour but he believed the party, which secured a record 37 seats in 2011, could hold a seat in each Dublin constituency.

“If we got 10 or 11 seats that’s half of what would have us competitive in the new Dáil. Something of the order of 20 seats plus, that means we’re very competitive and a Government probably couldn’t be formed without us.”

Tensions

Asked about reports of tensions between Labour leader, Tánaiste Joan Burton, and her deputy

Alan Kelly

, the Minister for the Environment, Mr White said: “The Labour Party is not the easiest organisation to run and manage. I’m sure they have their moments. But I think they’re getting on fine.”

Mr White said there were few certainties about the outcome of the election, but it was highly likely that Fine Gael would be the biggest party and would expect its leader to be Taoiseach.He said he did not underestimate the challenge of persuading people who had voted for Labour in 2011 but had “fallen out with us” to return.

“The more fragmentation there is to the left of the spectrum the more likely there is to be a Government of the right or the centre-right,” he said

“To put it bluntly, the more votes Sinn Féin get, the more likely it is that there’ll be a right-wing or a centre-right government.”

Labour would have to explain why it had made compromises, he said. The party had delivered on social issues, such as same-sex marriage and X case legislation.