Politicians settle into echo chamber

As the committee hearing on abortion begins, it seems like some of the politicians present want to leave well enough alone, writes Michael Clifford

INTO THE breach once more, dear friends. Austerity may bite, markets may tumble, wars may convulse, but nothing exercises the national psyche like the issue of abortion, or so it seemed yesterday as the latest round of self-flagellation got under way.

The first of three days of hearings by the Oireachtas health committee kicked off at the ungodly hour — by Leinster House standards — of 9.30am. The committee is conducting the hearings ahead of the drafting of legislation in response to the European Court of Human Rights ruling that instructed the State to legislate for the 1992 X case. That ruling includes a provision for abortion to be available in the case of a mother’s life being under threat from suicide — something that horrifies anti-abortion campaigners.