TDs fail to address real issue: Women travelling to Britain

The wrong number dominated the Dáil yesterday: Four — the amount of Fine Gael X case rebels, when it should have been 100,000 — the amount of Irish women forced to seek a termination abroad since that judgment was made.

The highly restrictive nature of the X case legislation means nearly all of those women would still have had to make that loneliest of journeys, even if it had been enacted in 1992, but their individual stories deserved far more attention than fevered speculation among deputies over which TD would lose the whip first, and who would follow next week.

That it had taken 21 years — nearly an entire political generation — for the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling to even reach the floor of the Dáil, tells you all you need to know about the timidity of the chamber.