Abortion vote is off the table until after election

Many TDs appear to want something done to allow for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and rape, but not yet.

The message comes from the top of the political establishment, with Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisting any further developments are a matter for the next government.

TDs are supposed to reflect the views of their constituents when they vote in Leinster House. Clare Daly, the Independent deputy whose proposed legislation to allow abortion in the event of fatal foetal abnormality was heavily defeated this week, has accused her colleagues of failing in this primary duty.

“Eighty per cent of the people have said they want you to do something about this,” Daly told Kenny during heated Dáil exchanges on Tuesday.

Daly was perhaps drawing on two Irish Times Ipsos/MRBI opinion polls conducted in 2013, which found eight out of 10 respondents believed abortion should be allowed when the foetus cannot survive outside the womb.

In the latest Irish Times poll on the subject, in October 2014, 68 per cent said they would be in favour of a referendum on permitting abortion in such cases. But some Government TDs say privately they do not believe the poll's findings.

They argue that there could be a big difference between how people tell pollsters they would vote in a hypothetical referendum and what they would do in a real poll.

They add that this is even more likely if a referendum was announced by an unpopular administration close to a general election dominated by economic issues.

With two referendums and a byelection scheduled with the maximum of a year left in office, it should come as no surprise that the Government is treating the issue of abortion with more caution than ever.

Coalition deputies also say problems around housing, mortgages and medical cards dominate in their clinics, while much smaller numbers of constituents contact them about abortion.

But Daly has previously stated 50 Government TDs, including “practically most of the Cabinet”, were on the Dáil record as being in favour of abortion in fatal foetal abnormality cases.

Kenny’s political calculation is that his backbenchers will not tolerate the introduction of another abortion measure during the Coalition’s term.

Thus far and no further, is his message to Labour and others.