We need to conclude. I invite Deputy Clare Daly on behalf of the Independents 4 Change.

I want to tell the Taoiseach a story. I wish it was not a true story but it is. Two sisters were both pregnant and happily looking forward to the birth of their children. Tragically, towards the end of the first sister's uneventful pregnancy, the baby died in the womb. She was medically assisted in delivering him, the family buried him and mourned him. The second sister received a diagnosis that the foetus she was carrying had a condition of fatal foetal abnormality incompatible with life. She wrote to me in the days that followed:

I do not want to terminate my baby’s life but he does not have one. A heartbeat does not equate to an independent life for my boy, it only confirms a short few hours of pain for him and a lifetime of it for us. I have watched what my sister went through, the amount of support she was offered and the support she will require over the coming months. I feel so angry that this support is not available to me. I have also watched my parents anguish, particularly my mother’s, as they take note of all this and know that their other daughter has this ahead of her without that much needed support, hundreds of miles away from family and friends. The dignity shown to the tiny corpse of my nephew in the hospital, in the mortuary and on his first and final journey home will not be extended to my son as he will have to be locked in the boot of the car on a ferry journey back across the Irish Sea or his ashes delivered by a courier weeks later, along with Amazon and eBay purchases.

This is the Taoiseach's Ireland. These events happened in the weeks after he last voted down our fatal foetal abnormalities Bill. In anybody's book it is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The Government has appeared in front of international human rights bodies on four occasions since and has been instructed to deal with these matters but the Taoiseach has done nothing. In the case taken by Amanda Mellet, UN human rights experts stated that not only did Ireland violate her human rights, but the lack of action aggravated her suffering. The Taoiseach comes to the House and speaks about a citizens' assembly reporting to an Oireachtas committee, which means that it will be at least 2018 before any proposals will be before the people to remedy this, condemning hundreds of others to the torture which was experienced by Amanda Mellet. The Taoiseach hides behind the advice-----

Will the Deputy please put a question.

-----of the Attorney General, advice we have not seen and which was substantially at variance with the advice of other Attorneys General and which was disputed by an array of legal experts. Who does the Taoiseach think he is to believe he can allow the continued violation of human rights?

I thank the Deputy.

The Constitution can never be used to deal with this.

If the Taoiseach does not have the leadership or the guts to do this himself will he stop using his position to block the courts or the people from dealing with it?

These are all harrowing tales that Deputy Daly raises today. I get similar communications from women all over the country. This is our Ireland. It is an Ireland that is subject to a constitution, which is voted on by the people. In the 1980s that vote was taken by the people and the interpretation of its meaning was made by the Supreme Court. This impacts on people’s lives. I want to try to change that and in order to do that I have to build consensus, understanding and information for people who will have to vote if that be so to change the Constitution one way or the other.

It is not a case of me as a citizen standing here, blocking anything. We have put into the programme for Government a process which can be gone through rationally and in a common sense way, taking into account the changing attitudes and the sensitivities of so many people. The Deputy may not appreciate that. I understand her point of view. She has been very forthright about it. She has stated her views here very cogently on many occasions. Unfortunately for her, she cannot change the Constitution unless she has the opportunity to cast her vote along with the citizens. For that reason the process I have set out is one that will return here to the legislators elected by the people to cast their vote in a free way, according to their consciences. If that recommendation is for a referendum to deal with the eighth amendment in whatever form then so be it, that vote will take place and that is the only way it can be changed. While the Attorney General, as I told Deputy Howlin yesterday, is the only legal adviser to the Government under the Constitution, I accept that. It is of course the Supreme Court at the end of the day which interprets what the Constitution means. I have included as a central part of the programme for Government the citizens' assembly and a reflection in the first instance on the eighth amendment, taking into account many of the stories the Deputy has outlined and reference back to the Oireachtas.

While Deputy Daly has been forthright here, according to the medical assessments of what is contained in Deputy Wallace’s Bill it will not be touched by any medic in the country. This Bill is not good for women: it is bad for women. It is inadequate and that means that it does not answer the question the good lady asked in her letter to the Deputy. I have set out a process by which collectively we can reflect on this and eventually the people might be asked to make a decision. That is the only way the Deputy’s Constitution can be amended or changed. I do share Deputy Daly’s view that the services surrounding these events and instances should be improved. We want to make arrangements that it be so. The central issue is that if a child is born for whatever short length of time Article 40.3.3o kicks in and that is the challenge. That is what needs to be talked about and understood. That is why those at the top of the medical profession say that while Deputy Wallace might have the principle right in the Bill, the substance and the way it is phrased are grossly and wholly inadequate.

The Taoiseach does not stand here as a private citizen but as the leader of a country that has been found to violate the human rights of women. When we did try to put to the House the proposal that there would be a repeal of the amendment to the Constitution to provide for abortion in this and other circumstances, the Taoiseach and his Government stood in its way. He has used his position to block progress on this. The arrogance of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, and several of his colleagues, who would presume to anticipate how the courts would deal with this matter, is absolutely breathtaking. The Taoiseach’s use of the Attorney General as a block is in and of itself unconstitutional in my opinion. The Government proposes laws, the Dáil passes laws and the courts interpret laws. Why can the Taoiseach not allow the courts of our country adjudicate on this? We have not seen the Attorney General’s advice but from the titbits we get, and the Taoiseach seems to have reiterated it, her advice seems to rest on the mistaken premise that Article 40.3.3o deals only with cases where there is a risk to the life of the mother.

That is not true. PP v. HSE, Roche v. Roche and in re A Ward of Court did not deal with those circumstances. She seems to be saying-----

Your time is up.

The Taoiseach went well over his time. I was watching the clock on this.

You have gone over your time too.

Maybe he could assist us by publishing the advice of the Attorney General. He is the one who stopped the people and courts deciding on this, and his diktat to his backbenchers to obstruct this Bill is condemning hundreds of people to the continuation of torture because what he has proposed is nothing.

Deputy Daly is wrong again. We legislated for the interpretation of the Supreme Court in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act after 30 years of failure and neglect by any Government to deal with or legislate for this issue. The Deputy said I did nothing about it, but a central part of the programme for Government contains a process by which we can look and reflect carefully on the eighth amendment and what it means. The citizens assembly will examine it in the first instance and report back to the Oireachtas.

The Deputy may not believe in or want that process, but it is something that is a way to look at the eighth amendment and its ramifications for the many women who have had to deal with trauma, stress and pressure. I agree that the services that should be provided for people can be improved. The central issue of the substance of Article 40.3.3° is one that is part of the process we have put in place.