A Sinn Féin TD has criticised the Oireachtas Committee on the eighth amendment for a pro-abortion imbalance in its list of witnesses. In response to a question on RTE’s the Week in Politics whether the Committee was biased toward the pro-choice view, Peadar Tóibín, TD, said “It’s natural that TDs would seek to bring in witnesses that would further their political objectives on committees, but when you look at the balance of the members and also the witnesses, 24 witnesses are pro-choice and 4 witnesses are pro-life, so I was disappointed.” He continued: “I’m a chair of a committee, and even on issues that I wouldn’t agree with I would make sure there’s a balance of people coming before a committee so that there’s a good honest debate.” Mr Tóibín was criticised by two of his Sinn Féin colleagues who claimed that the situation arose as a result of pro-life witnesses refusing to appear before the committee. However, this view was disputed by Cora Sherlock of the Pro-Life Campaign who tweeted in response that the imbalance was caused at the very outset when 24 pro-choice witnesses were invited compared to just 4 pro-life.