Fianna Fáil was “out of step” with the public on abortion and this damaged its chances of returning to power, one of its leading TDs has said. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, said the abortion issue was an “incredibly difficult” one for Fianna Fáil, which is “scarred” by the divisions. The image of 31 of its parliamentary party posing for a photo opposing repeal of the Eighth amendment did damage the party, particularly in urban areas, he said.

The comments surprised observers who noted that the Fianna Fail party took no official position on the repeal referendum, but many of its leading figures led the charge to liberalise the country’s abortion laws. It was a Fianna Fail TD, Billy Kelleher, who first suggested that abortion should be delivered by GPs and be available without restriction for the first three months of a pregnancy.

Also, while 31 members of the parliamentary party publicly opposed repeal, that was little over half the parliamentary party of 57 TDs and senators. FF members had overwhelmingly opposed repeal at their Ard Fheis in 2017 when they passed a motion against it. Moreover, a majority of FF voters voted against Repeal according to an RTE exit poll.

In the last general election, in 2016, Fianna Fail received 24.3% of the vote, whereas 34% of the people voted against repeal of the Eighth amendment.