Senator Joe O’Toole has condemned Cardinal Sean Brady accusing him of ‘fundamentalism’ and of interfering in Irish affairs after the Cardinal criticised the decision of the European Court of Human Rights regarding Ireland’s abortion law.

He said: “Ireland won’t be lectured to by any fundamentalist whether he is wearing a red hat in Armagh or a white hat in the Vatican”.

Senator O’Toole lashed the Cardinal for responding to the ECHR decision given the Church’s past failure to properly protect children.

He stated: “having failed for years to get any movement from the Church leadership to move to protect abused children and to deal with perverted clerics, where that arose, is it anything short of outrageous to witness the antics from Armagh in the past 12 hours? It has taken my breath away it is so disgraceful and the people should be told. One mention of pregnancy termination and the Church leadership is galvanised into action, immediately ready to take it on”.

He called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to send a cable to Armagh “to outline where we stand and let the cobbler stick to his last. They can do the praying up there and we will do the legislating down here.”

He accused the Church of trying to introduce the equivalent of Sharia law into Ireland.

He said: “If we want to legislate for Sharia law or whatever kind of fundamentalism they want to peddle to us, we will give them a call when that arises. It is quite outrageous that we should find ourselves in that position. In the meantime, as Senator John Hanafin said yesterday, we are an independent republic and we will do our own business and we will not be lectured to by any fundamentalist, whether he is wearing a red hat in Armagh or a white hat in the Vatican.”

He continued: “This is not an issue of abortion, this is an issue of protecting pregnant women whose lives are in danger. Whereas I would not have expected the Church leadership to be championing women’s rights, I really did believe that when it came to a straight position where a woman’s life was in danger that they would not stand in the way of the appropriate medical treatment in those situations.”

However, according to the World Health Organisation Ireland has jointly the lowest maternal death rate in the world at one per 100,000 women. The rate in the UK – which has one of Europe’s most liberal abortion laws – is eight in 100,000.

Responding to last week’s ECHR decision which effectively told Ireland to legislate for the X-case of 1992, Cardinal Brady said: “The judgement given today by the European Court of Human Rights regarding the legal position on abortion in Ireland raises profound moral and legal issues which will require careful analysis and reflection. Today’s judgment leaves future policy in Ireland on protecting the lives of unborn children in the hands of the Irish people and does not oblige Ireland to introduce legislation authorising abortion.”

Meanwhile. Senator Feargal Quinn accused Senator O’Toole of using “intemperate” language.