Wife circumventing curbs on President’s utterances

Sabina Higgins’s presence at the National Student Midwives’ Debate, on May 4, where she said that our abortion laws were ‘an outrage against women’, was one of 16 events attended by her in a solo capacity this year.

The listing of the public activities of the President’s wife is to signal that her public remarks will not undermine the stature or reputation of his office; that such remarks are not to be construed as those of a random citizen. The President is obliged to promise, in the presence of Almighty God, to maintain the Constitution of Ireland and to uphold its laws.

The Constitution also prescribes strict restrictions if the President desires to address the nation on a matter of public interest, and prescribes that such an address must have the approval of the Government.