Citizen's Assembly finishes hearing from advocacy groups

The Citizens' Assembly has now finished hearing from advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate.

It was the last opportunity for the 99 members to hear substantive material on the matter - the next meeting on the 22nd and 23rd of April will focus solely on formulating the recommendations for the Oireachtas.

Speakers from 17 representative groups debated the issue of the Eighth Amendment today.

Professor Veronica O'Keane from Doctors for Choice says Ireland's history shows that lack of abortion can lead to tragedies for women and children: "Before we had medically safe abortion, we had back street abortion, we had unwanted babies and abortion and we had infanticide. We did have infanticide.

"Sadly we have seen the consequences of this in the mass graves that were unearthed in Tuam. It is there, it is in front of us and there is more to come."