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SENATOR RÓNÁN MULLEN has warned his Seanad colleagues not to slip into “double-think” in condemning last week’s shootings in Newtown, Connecticut while also advocating the introduction of a new legal framework for abortion.
Speaking in the Seanad this afternoon, the NUI senator said he was ‘troubled’ that children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald, speaking in the Dáil yesterday on the report of the Expert Group into the A, B and C case, had not mentioned the welfare of unborn children.
Mullen was speaking after several other senators, in the Seanad’s first day back after the weekend, had expressed shock and sympathy at Friday’s events at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown in which 27 people, including 20 young children, were shot dead.
“I find entirely appropriate that we would join in solidarity with the people, with the children who died in Connecticut,” Mullen said. “Let’s be sincere about that.
“And let’s not slip into a double-think either, however, where we forget a whole category of children in our own country.
“The government has a very serious decision to make in these weeks and months on the abortion issue, as we all know.
“I find it very troubling that having done so well as Minister for Children, that Minister Frances Fitzgerald – in her speech yesterday – appeared to show no concern for unborn children,” he said, prompting heckles and jeers from members on the government benches.
Moving onto yesterday’s comments from the UN special rapporteur on the right to health, Anand Grover, who had told RTÉ News that abortions should be available to women not only where their lives were at risk, but also where their health could be adversely affected.
Grover had said what had happened to Savita Halappanavar, the Indian woman who died at a Galway hospital in October after being refused a termination of her stillborn foetus, “would never happen in India”.
This prompted further scorn from the government benches, with Labour’s Susan O’Keeffe asking: “And how could you link the children in Connnecticut to this debate? How could you do that?”
Mullen said he wished “to promote a culture of best care for mother and children – two patients.”
The Cabinet this morning discussed its plan of action on how to respond to the Expert Group’s report, and is expected to recommend a ‘legislation plus regulations’ approach to addressing the legal uncertainty in the area.
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“It’s not necessary to censor the news, it’s sufficient to delay the news until it no longer matters” – Napoleon
These 30 year secrecy rules do not serve the interests of the people of Ireland.
They only protect the elites from accountability.
Why do you think they chose 30 years?
Because most politicians are in power in their 50′s and 60′s, and by the time 30 years has elapsed, they’re either too old to be jailed, or dead.
@Franklin Roosevelt:
IF (a big if) the rumours about King Gerry are true it makes one think about the timing of his stepping down.
@Franklin Roosevelt: In any government as in any large business have to have some secrecy…Cant publish every cabinet discussion that day for instance…Or every ministeral email…It would damage trust in the government… 30 years seems ok….
@P.J. Nolan: who is King Gerry? I know of no monarch with that name.
And what are the rumours?
@John003: I’m not asking for that.
But for the big decisions… like what was the correspondence of the government between 2008 and 2010? When Ireland issued a blanket bank guarantee, then forced us to pay a 150 billion debt.
Surely it’s in our interest to know all the details of that? And not wait until 2040 to find out.
And what about the friendship that bankers had with Brian Cowan?
In the 1930′s, when businessmen and politicians colluded, it was called fascism.
@P.J. Nolan: and do you believe these rumours spreaded by a priest?
@John003: time to release the Dublin Monaghan bombing files so
’87 – Cov city won the FA cup
Glad they were able to maintain their form :(
The current car registration system in Ireland started in 1987
I was born 3 years later so i am going to let myself away with that disastrous score.
@Con O’Driscoll: I can’t work out how you were two different ages in the same year…. I’ve tried to do the equation several times and it just doesn’t seem possible. Please inform us mere mortals of your ingenious reasoning!!!
@Paul Linehan: because he was 3 for the first part of the year and 4 after his bday…
@Karen NíDhochartaigh: That makes perfect sense now, thanks Karen….
The Reagan question answer is wrong. Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall was in 1987. Not the answer given in the question
I was at Slane and Bowie that year. It was pretty damn good !!!
@Catherine Sims: Oh, I hated missing it in Slane so much, the Glass Spider tour. But I got to see him play in Wembley that year! I always envied older people who saw him years ago, & never thought he’d hit the road again. It was great to hear him live.
Had my first ciggie in 1987 , puked outside the exam hall lol
8/10 and I only turned 9 that year.
5/10. Hard to believe that more people went to see Three Men and a Baby than Good Morning Vietnam. I doubt those figures.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: it had magnum P.I and Sam from cheers left minding a baby. Definatly the safest movie of the 4 for families at that time. The other 3 are movies that still have appeal to this day, no one of any age or gender could be arsed sitting through 3 men and a baby now.
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