Cathal BarryFormer Fine Gael party member Lucinda Creighton has said it is “ironic” that the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has now said he will contemplate a free vote in the parliamentary party in future in order to “get rid” of the abortion question.
Ms Creighton, who left the party during the passage of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, said Mr Kenny will “do what is expedient for his own ends” and that compromising on abortion was the best example of that.
Mr Kenny last month assured his parliamentary party that in the event of a referendum to repeal the Eighth (Life Equality) Amendment, TDs and senators can vote by their conscience.
This means that any Fine Gael politician can vote against future legislation to liberalise the country’s abortion laws – without being ejected from the party.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Parchment, the magazine of the Dublin Solicitor’s Bar Association, the Renua leader confirmed she would campaign against the repealing of the Eighth Amendment but that her new party has an open position on the issue.
On her departure from Fine Gael over the 2013 act, Ms Creighton said she was annoyed and disappointed.
Shocked
“I was pretty shocked by [Enda’s] behaviour but I shouldn’t have been,” she said. “He’ll do what is expedient for his own ends. Compromising on abortion being the best example but there are many others,” she added.
However, Ms Creighton says she does not harbour any resentment towards Mr Kenny – and is prepared to enter Government with Fine Gael.
“I don’t harbour resentment towards anyone in politics, least of all Enda Kenny,” she said.
Mr Kenny has said the Fine Gael manifesto will not commit to a repeal on the Eighth Amendment.
However, it will pledge to refer the matter of the Eighth Amendment – which gives equal status to the rights of the mother and the unborn – to a so-called ‘Citizens Convention’.