Cabinet seeks attorney general advice on Eighth Amendment repeal

The Taoiseach has suggested that legislation brought in after a repeal of the Eighth Amendment could be unconstitutional.

Leo Varadkar raised the possibility of other protections around the right to life, children’s rights, and rights to bodily autonomy which could exist elsewhere in the Constitution and has sought legal advice around this.

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that Government has consulted with the attorney general around the proposal of the Citizens’ Assembly to have an enabling provision specifying that legislation in this area is the “sole prerogative of the Oireachtas and not the courts because there are other rights in the Constitution”.