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IN OUR SURVEY of Oireachtas members on the 8th Amendment, 18 Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators responded.
Of this, ten said they are not in favour of repealing the amendment, which gives equal importance to the right of the unborn to that of the mother.
The other eight were unable to give a Yes or No answer, citing the complexity of the issue.
Some 15 people, including party leader Micheál Martin, did not respond.
Deputies Barry Cowen, Timmy Dooley, Michael McGrath, Robert Troy, health spokesperson Billy Kelleher, and Senator Mary White, the party’s sole female representative in the Oireachtas, sent an identical response to TheJournal.ie. It read:
I do not believe there is a simple yes or no to this sensitive and complex question. The people will want to know what is going to replace the 8th Amendment – whether this would be an added article to the constitution or whether it would be legislation alone. A straightforward deletion would mean the people would never be consulted again on this issue and it would be the prerogative of the legislature.
White added that the issue should not be ”party political”.
Senator Denis O’Donovan said, as Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Seanad, he isn’t taking a position on the topic.
The recently-elected Carlow-Kilkenny TD Bobby Aylward said he wasn’t going to comment on the issue at the moment as he was only recently elected.
At Fianna Fáil’s Ard Fheis in April (where about 3,000 people attended), just 30-40 members were present for a vote on the issue. The majority voted to maintain the party’s position of not repealing the 8th Amendment.
At the time, some delegates complained that motions including this one were delayed and voted on well after the surrounding debate, and by a very small percentage of the party’s members. The vote is not binding.
Senator Thomas Byrne, who is not in favour of repealing the amendment, has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on the issue:
The 8th Amendment, Article 40.3.3, was added to the Constitution following a referendum on 7 September 1983.
It reads: “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”
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In fairness most accept those on that flight are dead but it would be nice to know what happened to them.
Without getting into conspiracy theories . I find it very difficult to understand how nothing has been found/washed up/spotted at all.
Even if the aircraft hit the sea there would be some debris somewhere.
It’s not exactly a small aircraft and there was luggage as well as components that would float.
It’s some mystery.
Sorry Mike, you cant speculate about what happened to MH370 without falling down the old ‘rabbit hole’.
Anyone who thinks that U.S. intel agencies dont know the exact location of every single modern Boeing everywhere on the planet is living in cloud cuckoo land.
Read up on Boeing’s “uninterruptible autopilot” patents.
I don’t know what happended to MH370 but I do know this: The US does know exactly what happened.
Seriously Stephen,we can speculate conspiracy theories for weeks and I’m not rubbishing any body’s theories but I personally (and I emphasise “personally”) just can’t get my head around all the organised theories. What/who would benifit from the capture/destruction of the aircraft.
Either way it’s one of the strangest mysteries in the world so far and if there is one thing humans love,it’s a mystery.
Stephen,respectfully, you are full of chit….No debris, no oil slick on a perfectly calm ocean(the storms weren`t happening at the time),no radar emission from the worlds biggest power that has the whole Pacific ocean covered with satellite intelligence, not even a beep from a black box? – Black boxes do not just disappear! – they are built to last for at least 3 months,even in deep water, this thing has false flag written all
when you smell Bullchit, you have to call what you see.
is all part of the NWO- Divide and conquer
Sorry, stephen , i meant to say Mike
UFO’s might have taken it
The plane that was blown out of the sky over the Ukraine, happened to have 100 of the top scientists in the world of communicable diseases heading towards a meeting in another country, Riddle me this, .
Why did professional people from all over the world choose to meet in Holland,and then jointly fly out to Argentina for a conference on World diseases? SurelyThey could have come from their own countries and made their way to the meting Via their own countries Airlines
Check the Passenger manifests for these flights involved,
Oh gawwwd….Seriously,why me.
Is there some kind of norton or avg anti looneyware I could invest in.
Nothing Personal Mike, sorry, I just think that this thing is bigger than we will ever be
New World Order?? No offence or anything, but did you get measured up for your tinfoil hat yet?
There is no proof that this plane did crash. The plane still had enough fuel to fly another 2,200 miles after its communication devices were turned off. It is still a major mystery.
Yesterday I was listening to the radio and the expert said they had tracked the plane till it was “running out of fuel”. I remember this because I thought it was odd that someone whether a hijacker or a crew member would take a plane and fly it round till it ran out of fuel. Very strange.
My sympathy to the relatives and friends.
In fairness what else can they do! A plane vanishes without a trace, zilch nothing, must be very hard for the families. I get the presumed dead, but an accident!!!
Terrorism I don’t think so- why not claim responsibility for it – that was the point of it
And I think – in realistic terms- that plane was pretty small in relation to the vast sea it was ment to
Have crashed into- also the fact that they don’t know where it went – on autopilot or communications turned off deliberately- conspiracy theorists could point to any amount of different things
With no evidence to disprove it- but what is sure is the plane is gone – the passengers/ crew are most likely deceased either through foul play or accident – lots of aircraft have disappeared and never been located – this disappearance with technology today however is unusual
Surely if it had crashed especially into the ocean some part of it would have surfaced by now I just don’t get it, there’s more to this than meets the eye god help the families
It’s horrific for their families. In all fairness we have to presume all crew and passengers are dead. It’s almost a year and there’s no contact. All those who think the lack of evidence is suspicious, didn’t a shark wash up the other day that they weren’t even sure existed? The sea is a powerful being. Never underestimate it…
Thought and prayers with the families at this difficult time.
Oh well. At least they wont have to go thru it a 2nd time
The safest month to fly is in May but in a recession and austerity is there ever a safe time to fly but that is my view.
Michael Sands the only part of the world experiencing a recession is the EU and the USA, in the rest of the world it’s been business as usual
Ah yeah i was over in Iraq and Syria last weekend, place is flourishing!
Russia is an exremely aggressive state. Thousands of russian soldiers being “on vacation with hundred tanks, aniaircraft emplacements and heavy artillery guns” wage a real war against free Ukraine. These degenerates downed MH-17 with 298 unhappy victims.
Nadiya Savchenko is a 33 year-old Ukrainian female pilot kidnapped by Russia-supported insurgents in eastern Ukraine on June 18, 2014 and handed to Russian authorities who groundless charged her with an alleged killing of two Russian journalists that had died during combat. Being a prisoner of war, she is held by Russia in violation of Geneva Conventions and treated as a common criminal. The Russian side refuses to free her. Nadiya is on hunger strike and her life is in danger. Ukrainians know she is a victim of the Putin’s regime. Be on the side of Good, help Nadia!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/help-free-nadiya-savchenko/NS7bHz0T
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