Parliaments vote to test status quo - Two seismic political changes

IT is not uncommon to overestimate the heft of contemporary events. However, votes in two parliaments this week seem to be of a character that can, even at this stage, be described as historic. Neither is certain to re-route the society they reflect but both have the capacity to do so.

In Dublin, the Oireachtas committee on the Eighth Amendment voted 14-6 in favour of removing it from the Constitution. The adjective “seismic” is not often inadequate but this shift away from a long-held Alamo position seems more than seismic. A majority of the committee endorsed access, without restrictions, to the termination of a pregnancy for up to 12 weeks, echoing the Citizens’ Assembly conclusion. Even a decade ago this would have been unthinkable.