In recent months, spurred on by the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in A, B & C, by the 2011 observations of the UN Committee Against Torture, and by Ireland’s Universal Periodic Review, we have seen a significant push towards legislation ‘for X‘. To this end, in February, Clare Daly TD introduced a Private Member’s Bill in parliament, which was debated and rejected in the Dail today. For its part, the government has appointed an expert group, chaired by Sean Ryan,  which will report on the possible legislative implementation of A, B & C in the summer (see the IFPA’s detailed critique of this strategy here). The majority of TDs speaking today seemed open to the proposal to legislate for X in principle, albeit they did not support this specific Bill. It may be that we are on the cusp, finally, of some legislative movement on abortion in Ireland.

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