News Roundup

Government set to restrict rights of denominational schools

Two key moves to restrict denominational education in Ireland will be made by the Government within weeks. Plans by Education Minister Richard Bruton to remove the so-called ‘baptism barrier’, whereby schools may give preference in admissions to pupils of their own faith community in the event of overcrowding, are at an advanced stage. So too are moves to survey parents as to who should run their local Catholic primaries; a first step to actually transferring those schools to non-denominational patrons. According to Katherine Donnelly of the Irish Independent, the twin initiatives represent  a “head-on challenge to the foundations of Catholic education,” and comes in the midst of the abortion referendum campaign and while the Church is busy making preparations for the visit by Pope Francis in August.

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Save the 8th campaign launched in Dublin 

The Save the 8th campaign has been launched in Dublin with a range of expert speakers and young voices appealing to the electorate to preserve protection for the unborn in the constitution.
Its leader Niamh Uí Bhriain said a Yes vote would be a “horrible and tragic mistake”.  She said politicians are asking people to trust them and are “effectively seeking a licence to kill”.
“The public cannot trust politicians with the right to life in the womb,” she said, adding that “there have been more flip-flops in the Dáil than on the average beach”.
Also speaking at the launch, Dr John Monaghan, a retired consultant obstetrician, said he believes there is “no medical evidence to get rid of the Eighth Amendment”. He said he had delivered between 4,000 and 5,000 babies during his career and had never been prevented from protecting a woman’s life by the Eighth Amendment. Dr Monaghan said many doctors like him are pro-retain and he said others were giving “their personal views, not professional”.
Nurse Marie Donnelly said abortion was not healthcare and she would give up her career rather than take part in an abortion. She said the Government plan for abortion “will add an intolerable strain to an already broken service”.
Vicky Wall, a mother who lost her baby soon after birth, also spoke, saying “we are being asked to sanction every abortion in Ireland for people like me … I for one and others will not stand by while our suffering is used to inflict death on perfectly healthy babies”.
Full coverage of the launch can be found at this link.
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Church of Ireland Archbishops oppose 12 weeks abortion proposal

The two most senior Church of Ireland leaders yesterday re-affirmed their opposition to unrestricted access to abortion, and called the proposal to repeal the Eighth Amendment a “stark decision” as the Government have now confirmed that unrestricted access to abortion, for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, would follow upon repeal of the amendment.

The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, and The Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland said they had previously expressed concern that the referendum was being understood as something like an opinion poll on abortion. “However, now that the Government has made known the general scheme of a Bill which it would introduce should the referendum on the repeal of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland be passed, voters face a stark decision.” While they said the present amendment was not entirely satisfactory, and might need some modification, “what is now being proposed by the Government – if the Article is repealed – is unrestricted access to abortion up to twelve weeks of pregnancy”.

They continued: “unrestricted access to abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, or indeed at any stage, is not an ethical position we can accept. There is, for Christians, a very clear witness in the Scriptures that all human life, including before physical birth, has a sacred dignity in the eyes of God”. They concluded: “We therefore ask Church members to think through the issues involved carefully and with prayer over these coming weeks.”

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Abortion referendum to take place on May 25th

The referendum on repeal of the 8th Amendment is set to take place on Friday, May 25th. Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy made the formal announcement at a press conference yesterday. It came after the bill to hold a referendum passed all stages of the Seanad, after having previously pssed the Dail. That cleared the way for the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Eoghan Murphy, to set the date for the referendum. Polling will be from 7am to 10pm and Minister Murphy has asked people to check that their names are on the register. He said that if people have a postal vote, that will close on 28 April and if you are entitled to vote in the normal way the supplementary register will close on 8 May. Mr Murphy asked people to make sure they are registered at checktheregister.ie and “go out and use your vote on Friday, May 25th.”

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Coveney’s claims of abortion restrictions dismissed by Simon Harris

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, issued a terse denial of Simon Coveney’s face-saving claims to having won restrictions to the Government’s proposed abortion regime. After the debacle of his legislative “two-thirds majority lock” proposal was declared unconstitutional by the Attorney General, the Cabinet, in an attempt to avoid further public criticism of Minister Coveney, agreed an unspecified measure whereby abortion laws would go through a process “above and beyond” the normal legislative scrutiny. According to Sarah Bardon of the Irish Times though, “Nobody is quite sure what that means”.

Minister Coveney yesterday spoke to The Irish Times and said his support for the Government’s proposals was “conditional” and told Newstalk of his expectation that women in the latter stages of pregnancy would require a scan, to determine the age of the unborn child, before a termination can be procured. Both statements were rejected by Minister for Health Simon Harris at a press conference yesterday, who added that he did not intend to spend the next eight weeks of the campaign answering “the same question about individual politicians”.

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State to urge Church to welcome same-sex headed families to papal event, says Taoiseach

The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has said the Government will urge the Church to celebrate all families, including same-sex headed families, during the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Dublin for the World Meeting of Families.
He was responding to questions from Fianna Fáil TD, Robert Troy, who said he was concerned the Catholic Church might only welcome “traditional families”. Deputy Troy noted that originally the Church produced “pamphlets and booklets demonstrating more than the traditional Irish family”, but since then, “they’ve moved away from welcoming the non-traditional Irish family”. He added: “given the fact that it was, as a country, one of the first to have a referendum to establish marriage equality in the gay community, I think that is regrettable”.
Mr Varadkar said the Government is very much of the view that all the many different types of families should be celebrated, including the traditional nuclear family with the man married to the woman with children, “but also one-parent families, families led by grandparents, and families led by same-sex couples”. He promised that the State would “make it known in our meetings with the organisers that in line with our commitment to personal liberty and equality before the law, the Government’s view is that families in all their forms should be celebrated”.
While noting a commitment to freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, the Taoiseach said the Government would express its view, but promised, “we will not try to impose it on a religious body”.

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Abortion proposals advance, but Coveney’s is shot down by Taoiseach

The bill to hold an abortion referendum to repeal the 8th amendment passed the Seanad last night, and the proposed abortion legislation that would follow it was approved by the Cabinet. At the same time, Tánaiste Simon Coveney endured withering criticism of his proposal to restrict future legislative changes on abortion law after the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, shot down his proposal in the Dail as unconstitutional. Minister for Health Simon Harris threw a sop to the Tánaiste by promising he would review with the Attorney General ways of making future changes to abortion law legislatively difficult without apply any extra-constitutional lock to legislation. Mr Coveney had already endured some torrid criticism from pro-life groups for a sudden u-turn on his support for unrestricted abortion prior to 12 weeks gestation. They addded to that criticism yesterday after the shambles of him “demanding” the legislative lock, only to see it “in tatters” within hours of making it.

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Bill for same-sex marriage in NI introduced at Westminster

A bill to redefine marriage in Northern Ireland so as to enable same-sex couples to marry passed its first hurdle in the House of Lords on Tuesday, as an identical bill is to be introduced in the House of Commons, today, Wednesday.
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who will co-sponsor the bill in the House of Commons said: “I’d much rather that this decision was taken by local politicians in Belfast, but given that it doesn’t seem the Assembly will be up and running again soon, I believe that Westminster MPs are right to change the law to provide marriage equality for everyone. It is a real honour and a privilege to be sponsoring this legislation. I hope that all parties will now support it and make sure it becomes law as quickly as possible so that everyone, in all parts of the United Kingdom, no matter where they live or who they love, can get married”.
Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley said last month that Conservative MPs would have a free vote on the bill. Nonetheless, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson predicted that the legislation was unlikely to get through all the stages of the parliamentary process.

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Coveney super-majority proposal dismissed  as unconstitutional

Tánaiste Simon Coveney is to ask his Cabinet colleagues to consider introducing a two-third majority lock in any legislation to replace the Eighth Amendment, which would make it extremely difficult for any future Dáil to change abortion laws in the Republic. However, his proposal has been roundly derided as unconstitutional.

A spokesman for Mr Coveney said: “The Tánaiste is looking for a two-third majority to be necessary if there was ever any attempt to alter the law in the future. . . . The Tánaiste hopes this will go someway towards countering the reckless claims that our parliament can’t be trusted and to reassure voters that there will be no creeping change over time if they vote repeal.”

Ironically, his proposal served to heighten fears that a majority of deputies would change the law in the future, and the criticism of his proposal as unconstitutional made those fears even more acute.

Labour party leader Brendan Howlin told RTE’s Morning Ireland he had “no doubt that what he is suggesting is unconstitutional,” and added: “The problem is if that was inserted in the law, prima facie, that law would not be constitutional itself and I wouldn’t want to put the really hard work of advancing this case at risk.”

Assistant Professor of law at Trinity College David Kenny agreed that Mr Coveney’s proposals were unconstitutional and would require a Constitutional change. Fianna Fail TD Thomas Byrne described the suggestion as “truly bizarre” and said Mr Coveney should be “hammered for basic lack of knowledge” of the Constitution.

A spokesperson for the Savethe8th campaign, Niamh UiBhrian, said: “We agree with Simon Coveney that politicians simply cannot be trusted with abortion, and that additional safeguards are needed. But what the Minister is proposing is crazy, unconstitutional, and telling“.

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Coveney support for abortion-on-demand in first 12 weeks attacked by party colleagues

Tánaiste Simon Coveney’s u-turn in support of unrestricted abortion for the first three months of pregnancy has been attacked by a number of party colleagues.

Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick and senators Paul Coghlan and Ray Butler have expressed surprise at his remarks with Mr Fitzpatrick stating he was “taken back” by the decision to support “abortion on demand” within the first trimester. Mr Coghlan said he was “very disappointed”, while Mr Butler said he was “shocked” by the Tánaiste’s remarks.

One party member, who did not wish to be named but is a close supporter of Mr Coveney, told The Irish Times they were “shell-shocked” by the decision. The member said: “I will make my decision based on my own conviction and won’t be looking over my shoulder when I make mine. Simon [Coveney] should do likewise.”

The Pro Life Campaign has said that Mr Coveney has brought the issue of trusting politicians to the front and centre of the debate after becoming the latest politician who in the space of just a few weeks has entirely changed his position on the kind of abortion regime he supports.

PLC spokesperson Cora Sherlock said Mr Coveney is engaging in word games “when he knows that the proposal he is backing will lead to abortion on demand in Ireland and he knows it will end the lives of countless babies whose hearts are already beating and are at a point developmentally where they have started to suck their thumbs”.

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