Kenny sends strong message to Church to butt out

By standing up to the Catholic bishops following their latest intervention in the abortion debate, the Taoiseach has accurately read the public mood.

Enda Kenny is aware that while faith is personally important to the majority of Irish people — as, he points out, it is for him — there is no longer a tolerance for the church hierarchy dictating sovereign law.

Describing himself as “a Taoiseach who happens to be Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach”, Mr Kenny declared in the Dáil yesterday that personal or private belief should not be part of lawmaking in a republic.