The Government was yesterday accused by the Labour Party of burying its head in the sand on the issue of human cloning.
The party's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said it was time the Government followed international example and introduced legislation to ban human cloning in the Republic. "The ostrich-like approach of the Government is no longer acceptable," she said.
She was speaking at a press conference in Dublin where the Labour Party presented details of a Private Members' Bill it drafted for the purposes of banning cloning. It hopes it generates debate on the issue of cloning in the the State and receives all-party support.
The Bill sets out to ban cloning for the purpose of human reproduction and also to ban the use of cloning for the purpose of producing embryos from which stem cells could be extracted. A person breaching the legislation could be jailed for up to 10 years.
Ms McManus said Labour was responding to the rapid momentum which cloning experimentation had gained in recent months and the legislative "vacuum" on cloning in the State.
She claimed the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had "failed completely" to take any constructive action to address the matter despite "alarming" international developments. However a Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction was established in February 2000 and is due to publish its recommendations later this year.
"Labour believes it would be unwise to await the report of the commission to pass simple legislation to ban human cloning in Ireland.
"Whatever recommendations the commission makes can be dealt with when they are produced, but with science quickly outpacing legislative controls, the time for action is now," Ms McManus said.
Dr Mary Upton, Labour's spokesperson on Agriculture and Food, who tabled the Bill, said she did so because of growing concern at the absence of any framework in this country governing cloning.