Fine Gael Ministers criticised over Eighth Amendment

Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger has suggested that the Taoiseach's likely successors have little interest in repealing the Eighth Amendment, which bans abortion.

Ms Coppinger made the comment as she challenged Enda Kenny in the Dáil on Wednesday on holding a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

She said the Taoiseach’s failure to hold a referendum on the issue had been raised with him many times.

Referring to Minister for Housing Simon Coveney and Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar, she said that, while it looked like there would be a generational change in Fine Gael's leadership, it did not look like there would be a generational change in its attitude to abortion.

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“The Taoiseach’s two apprentices are old heads on young shoulders,’’ she said.

“They are still stuck in the past on this issue and neither of them believe in women’s bodily autonomy, which means they are divorced from the generation they represent.’’

Citizens’ Assembly

Ms Coppinger said the mantra from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Independent Alliance was that women should just dutifully wait for the Citizens' Assembly to give its verdict, while in the real world crisis pregnancies continued.

Mr Kenny said the assembly “has taken into account a range of views’’.