Rónán Mullen and Mattie McGrath threaten to quit 8th Amendment hearings

The chairwoman of the Oireachtas committee on the Eighth Amendment has asked two pro-life members who threatened to resign not to leave the group amid claims it is biased and “a propaganda exercise in favour of abortion”.

Fine Gael senator Catherine Noone made the request after Independent senator Rónán Mullen and Independent TD Mattie McGrath said they are actively considering quitting the group.

In a fractious press conference at the gates of Leinster House yesterday, Mr Mullen and Mr McGrath said they were boycotting the committee due to what they claim is a pro-choice bias in its approach.