Independents to support Ruth Coppinger’s ‘repeal’ bill

Some of the Independent Alliance look set to support Independent TD Ruth Coppinger’s bill to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution on abortion.

While no decision will be taken by the group until they reconvene later in the month as to what they will do, members last night signalled their unwillingness to oppose a bill which they fully support.

In the weeks before the Dáil broke for the summer, the Government came close to collapsing over an insistence by ministers Shane Ross, Finian McGrath, and John Halligan to support a bill proposed by Independent TD Mick Wallace, which sought to liberalise Ireland’s abortion laws.