TD denies further legislation claim
The Labour minister and North Tipperary TD said he was confident that the heads of the bill on abortion would go to Cabinet tomorrow.
Mr Kelly said weekend reports of two Labour TDs saying they wished to go further than legislating for the X case would have no impact on the passing of the legislation over the coming weeks.
A Sunday newspaper reported conversations that were taped secretly with two Labour TDs in June and without their consent.
TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin was quoted as saying legislating for the X case was a “starting point”, while TD Anne Ferris said Labour party policy was not just to legislate for the case but “to go further”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Mr Kelly denied that his party wanted to liberalise the laws on abortion through stealth.
He and other Coalition sources yesterday said they were “hopeful” the heads of bill would go before Cabinet tomorrow.
“I don’t see it going after that any further [than the X case],” said Mr Kelly.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said the legislation should not be rushed.
He admitted however that it could take another week or two.
However, senior Coalition sources last night said the deal was nearly completed between the parties on bringing the abortion legislation before Cabinet.
A senior source confirmed that less than six and maybe four consultants in total could be involved in approving a termination in a two-stage process.
“We have to make sure it’s not too onerous [on a woman], it’s a reasonable situation,” said one source. “But it must be balanced.”
“People have talked about this forever but we always had to deal with the Supreme Court case.”
The legislation is expected to go to committee stage for discussion for a number of weeks once it is approved by Cabinet before it then comes back to the Dáil to be voted on by TDs.
