Wallace says he does not think abortion bill will pass in Dáil

Independent TD Mick Wallace says he does not think his private member's bill on fatal foetal abnormality will pass in the Dáil today but he does want to see it go before the Supreme court.

"We're not saying we're 100 per cent right, but let the courts decide, it will bring forward, it will add urgency to the fact that there's at least four or five women every week in Ireland having to travel out of the country to have a fatal foetal abnormality dealt with. They are suffering something terrible."

The Dáil will tonight vote on the Bill put forward by Mr Wallace to allow for abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities.

Enda Kenny has agreed to allow Independent Ministers a free vote, but it is understood he robustly insisted this was a once-off and would not be facilitated on a regular basis.

The Attorney General advised the Dáil that the Bill was unconstitutional and the State’s chief medical officer also said it was unworkable.

Speaking to Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show, Mr Wallace said: "there's been a certain amount of arrogance on the part of some government TDs who claim this is not constitutional so we can't possibly support it. The truth be told politicians don't have the wherewithal to decide what is constitutional and neither does the Attorney General.

“The Attorney General can give advice, her advice is an opinion, and we all know that Attorney Generals differ.

"The only body in Ireland who can determine if something is constitutional or otherwise is the Supreme Court, and if we were to pass the bill it would go there. People saying the bill is not perfect, we know it isn't, we didn't get a chance to change it since the last time it went it in. The UN, only a few weeks ago, told us that we are violating the human rights of women."

Mr Wallace said that the decision on if an abortion was necessary should be left to the medical profession to decide. "If they decide it is a fatal foetal abnormality, it is then further tested, we don't have the capacity to test in Ireland, it has to go to England or Scotland, the analysis will go there for further checking. It will be a very safe system in place.

“We trust the medical profession around child birth any way. If we can’t trust our professionals then we’ve got a problem any way.”

Confusion

He said that there had been “a bit of confusion around the bill, some of it in my opinion has been deliberate.” He told of a TD colleague who said he could not vote for the bill because he had a friend with a special needs child.

“We’re not talking about life limiting illness, there has been confusion around that. People are being told in some cases, I know someone who survived this, survived that, but they’re talking about life limiting illnesses, we’re not talking about that.

“We are talking solely about situations where the prospects are fatal, fatal is not open for question.

“Medical concerns can be addressed at committee stage. There has never been a bill that is perfect, ever. It would not have an amendment, in my five years in the Dáil I’ve never seen a bill go through without amendments.

“If the foetus has no prospect of independent living outside the womb it cannot be considered the same as a foetus that has a prospect of survival outside the womb.

“The court is a living body it is designed to reflect society it’s designed to reflect present day, that’s one of the reasons why everything isn’t black and white for the courts, we wouldn’t need judges if everything was black and white. We could solve it all on the computer.

“I would be confident that if this goes to the Supreme Court that they would find that this does not contravene the constitution.

“What has the government done all through time - nothing. A civic assembly now is another attempt to kick the can down the road. We’re looking at 2018 before we get any where. Why aren’t we having an amendment in six weeks time, or a referendum in six weeks time.

“Since I’ve been elected there have been two all night sessions in the Dáil, when we want to pass something of an economic nature, where we feel it’s important it needs to be done straight away we do it over night, we spend years dealing with human rights violations of women, why, what’s the difference?

"The betting money is that it isn't going to pass, it is unfortunate that Fine Gael didn't get a free vote, they only gave to the Independents when they had no choice. I thought for a while that the Taoiseach might give a free vote to Fine Gael members, Fianna Fáil did, sadly only a minority of them will vote for it.

“Sadly the make up of our parliament does not reflect the views of the Irish people.”