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A BILL TO provide for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment has been voted down in the Dáil this evening.
TDs voted 74 to 23 to reject the proposed legislation with Sinn Féin and a number of independent TDs supporting the measure.
The bill was opposed by the two government parties and Fianna Fáil.
A number of Labour deputies missed the vote although this is not particularly unusual with several deputies paired due to prior engagements.
Anne Ferris, who lost the Labour party whip in February after supporting United Left deputy Clare Daly’s efforts to legislate for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, was also not present for the vote.
Socialist Party TDs Ruth Coppinger and Joe Higgins tabled the bill in a bid to force a referendum to repeal the controversial amendment. The bill was debated in the Dáil last Friday and voted on this evening.
The 8th Amendment, passed by referendum in 1983, enshrines the equal right to life of the unborn and the mother in the Constitution, and effectively outlaws abortion in Ireland.
The government has repeatedly argued that it has no mandate to hold a referendum on the issue in this Dáil term.
However, Labour has already committed to including a commitment to hold a referendum in its next general election manifesto.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie last week, minister Brendan Howlin described Coppinger’s bill as “opportunist”.
Fine Gael’s position is less clear with diverging views in the party that lost a handful of TDs in 2013 over the legislation that provided for abortions in cases where there is a risk to the life of a woman.
Speaking in the Dáil last Friday, Health Minister Leo Varadkar said that Fine Gael was elected in 2011 on a mandate that the party would not legalise abortion.
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And people think they have it bad here. As bad as people claim this country is we do look after the poorest members of society. I would say the majority of our homeless issues are drug or alcohol related and not so much due to the fact there is no financial help available.
Absolutely. A lot of people here don’t know how good they have it
Not just financial help but mental health services. Not to mention all manner of support to ex military. US has a shocking number of homeless
Bloody hell, let them have their shanty towns/ buildings, at least until somebody has a better offer?
Meanwhile trillions of dollars paid on defence and monitoring people’s emails.
That country is going the way of all empires.
It’s fascinating, yet disheartening, to watch.
Land of the free
Bulldozing their shacks doesn’t sound like freedom does it.
Imagine our county councils bulldozing traveler halting sites. There would be an outcry. It wouldn’t happen in Ireland.
23 thousand homeless kids in New York City, the richest city in the richest country in the world yet their government spends over 50% of their tax take on a military of global conquest proportions…..there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.
Didn’t look that bad on The Wire.
As of 2013, more than 15% of the U.S. population receive food assistance, costing $76 billion. This was not the American dream.
“It’s all in the game, y’all”
The present administration is hostile to small and medium size business through over regulation and mandates which make it hard to start and expand business to create jobs. The public school system is a joke and getting worse so the labor force is not prepared for high skilled jobs. Many homeless are also mentally ill and the working poor who have jobs but cannot afford proper housing. But progress has been made, another state is moving toward legalising marijuana and a baptist is giving out guns to attract new members. All is not lost.
Land of the free….yeah right!
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