Abortion referendum moves closer as committee votes against retaining 8th Amendment
The cross-party Oireachtas committee examining Ireland's abortion laws has voted by a landslide not to retain article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.
The decision was made by the committee on the future of the eighth amendment tonight in a vote after more than an hour of intense private discussion.
In public session, 15 committee members voted in favour of the proposal tabled by Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O'Brien, three voted against, two abstained and one member was not present.
Senator Ronan Mullen and Dublin Fingal TD Clare Daly had different reactions to the vote.
Mr Mullen said: "It is shameful in human rights terms, it is shameful in human dignity terms. This is a bad, bad moment for respect for human dignity in these Houses."
Ms Daly said: "There are games being played here. I think we've seen the opening salvoes of the referendum campaign in some of the speeches tonight. Something to look forward to, eh...not!"
Jan O'Sullivan - Labour
Lisa Chambers - Fianna Fáil
Louise O'Reilly - Sinn Féin
Ruth Coppinger - Solidarity-PBP
Jerry Buttimer - Fine Gael
Clare Daly - Independents4Change
Paul Gavan - Sinn Féin
Bernard Durkan - Fine Gael
Catherine Noone - Fine Gael
Billy Kelleher - Fianna Fáil
Catherine Murphy - Social Democrats
Lynn Ruane - Independent
Hildegarde Naughton - Fine Gael
Jonathan O'Brien - Sinn Féin
Kate O'Connell - Fine Gael
Ronan Mullen - Independent
Mattie McGrath - Independent
Peter Fitzpatrick - Fine Gael
Anne Rabbitte - Fianna Fáil
James Browne - Fianna Fáil
Ned O'Sullivan - Fianna Fáil
The vote means the committee can now examine six options outlined to it by senior counsel Nuala Butler on what proposals to put to the Government in mid-December.
They include a simple repeal, repeal with legislation, repeal and replace, and other general options.
Tonight's vote was taken after concerns eight motions seeking an immediate vote to repeal the eighth amendment - which some members wanted to take today - would not pass.
A separate motion put down by Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Billy Kelleher seeking a vote to be delayed until the end of the second module, on November 22, was also not voted on due to the "not retain in full" proposal.
