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“.

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”.

Young Irish people, between the ages of 16 and 29, rank among the most religious in Europe, alongside Poles and Lithuanians, a new study has found.

Some 54 per cent of Irish people in this age bracket identify as Catholic, 5 per cent as belonging to other Christian denominations, 2 per cent as being part of a non-Christian religion, and 39 per cent saying they had no religion.

Of that total figure, 15 per cent attend weekly religious services outside of special occasions such as weddings and funerals. However, of those who identify as Catholic, that figure rises to 24 per cent.

The report’s author, Prof Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University, said: “In only four countries do more than one-in-ten 16-29 year-olds claim to attend religious services on at least a weekly basis: Poland, Israel, Portugal, and Ireland”.

An expert report on childminding will be presented to Katherine Zappone, the children’s minister, and will recommend an expansion of the Government’s affordable childcare scheme so that up to 700 additional childminders might be covered by it. The report, however, is expected to come out against supports or payments to family members looking after children. It will also recommend that au pairs and nannies should remain outside the support programmes. Ms Zappone is expected to accept the recommendations.

The Stay-at-Home Parents’ Association has said that the new measures were pricing stay-at-home parents out of the market and depriving them of the choice to raise their children as full-time parents because they were not receiving financial assistance available to parents using childcare.

A new Red C poll on abortion in the Sunday Business Post found there has been a ten point cut in support for repealing Eighth amendment since January. The findings show that 56% of respondents are in favour of repeal, 26% are opposed, 16% don’t know and 2% refused to answer the question. On the issue of support for abortion up to twelve weeks, the poll found that 52% are in favour, 33% are opposed, 13% don’t know and 2% refused to give a preference.

According to the Pro Life Campaign the poll reflects very much what pro-life canvassers are picking up on the ground. PLC spokesperson Cora Sherlock said that for several weeks the Government has attempted to present its proposal as restrictive, but the public is starting to realise “that repeal would, in fact, introduce abortion on wide-ranging grounds”.

She concluded: “There will no doubt be fluctuations in the polls between now and referendum day but I am increasingly confident that the momentum is moving towards the pro-life side.”

Niamh UiBhriain of the Savethe8th campaign said: “One trend is clear both in polling, and from our experience talking to real voters: The more the public find out about this abortion proposal, the less they like it“. She said the Government is proposing abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks, and a carbon copy of the UK model after 12 weeks, and concluded: “As more and more voters discover the actual content of the Government’s proposals, they will turn away from the YES side in greater numbers. Irish people do not want a UK-style abortion regime, but that is what they are being asked to vote for.”

The Government are planning to limit abortions up to birth  to those pregnancies where the unborn child is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. For terminations after 12 weeks, for reasons impacting the physical or mental health of the mother, the legislation will allow abortion up to the point of viability, around the 23rd or 24th week of the pregnancy. This is the same as as in Britain where a fifth of pregnancies end in abortion for so-called ‘health’ reasons. After that, as the pregnancy enters the third trimester, a request for a termination on those same grounds will be accomplished by early delivery of the child, rather than the intentional killing of the child via abortion.

Unesco is urging governments around the world to prioritise providing single-sex toilets in schools, warning as many as 1 in 10 girls in some countries are missing out on lessons because of their period.

The UN’s education body surveyed 189 countries as part of its sixth annual gender review, and one “obstacle” to girls attending school was a lack of segregated toilets in schools, review director Manos Antoninis said, adding the agency found there was “little focus” on menstrual hygiene in schools in 21 low and middle income countries.

“Improved sanitation to address adolescent girls’ concerns over privacy, particularly during menstruation, can influence their education decisions,” he said.

“Single-sex toilets are desperately needed to overcome girls’ barriers to education.” The news comes as proponents of gender ideology, often working hand in glove with the UN and prominent NGOs, are denying the importance of bodily sex in favour of a mental concept of gender. This ideology would see toilets segregated according to one’s gender identity, rather than bodily sex as a means of pusuing a new understanding o equality. However, such changes in favour of a new understanding of equality would end up harming the most vulnerable, and set back the cause of women’s education considerably.