Senator: I had no part in wife’s invitation to committee

Criticism of the decision to allow the wife of a member of the Oireachtas committee hearing submissions on abortion to make her own submission has been rejected by her husband.

Fine Gael senator Colm Burke said yesterday he had no “hand, act or part” in the invitation of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to his wife, consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist Mary McCaffrey, to appear before the committee.

“I would have told the chair [Jerry Buttimer] when I saw her name on the list that I did not want to be part of the decision-making process,” Mr Burke said.