The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, has said the introduction of legislation allowing abortion in the case of pregnancy following rape would not work in practice. It would be almost impossible to introduce a "foolproof" law where the allegation of rape could be validated.
Mr McDowell was speaking yesterday after his appearance before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva earlier this month where concern was expressed on the matter. He said the only circumstances which Irish law recognised as justifying abortion was if it was necessary to save the life of the mother.
There were two issues to be examined, he said. "Firstly I suppose it is not much of a theoretical answer but in practice any rape victim is free to leave Ireland to have an abortion," he said on RTE radio yesterday. Secondly, he said, in relation to anybody who asked for an abortion in Ireland on the grounds of rape, "huge questions" would arise as to how it would be validated that a rape had in fact taken place.
"I can't imagine the circumstances now in which a foolproof law will be put in place if a woman presented at a hospital and said `I have been the victim of a rape. I need an abortion.' How would anybody in those circumstances be in a realistic position to distinguish between a false and a genuine claim? One of the downsides for making provision in that way would be that it might lead to a series of false accusations of rape if the means of access to abortion in Ireland were to be made an accusation of rape. It might be thought there would be a temptation to characterise sexual intercourse on an occasion giving rise to a pregnancy as non-consensual with a view to availing of that right."
Asked about the lack of independence and investigatory powers of the Garda Complaints Board, Mr McDowell said it was the case that gardai were used to investigate other gardai and that naturally brought about questions as to whether the process was fair and impartial.
He said the Minister for Justice was currently reviewing the composition of that board and "the unsatisfactory nature of the delays that we have come across in recent times compounded by the systemic problems to do with the adequacy of the investigation machine itself".
Mr O'Donoghue, he said, was reviewing this, and he was developing a policy response in the form of amending legislation.
Speaking about the appointment of a police ombudsman, Mr McDowell said he had taken on board the suggestion that there should be some form of independent mechanism to investigate not just individual complaints of misbehaviour but wider alleged systemic misbehaviour.