Attorney General to advise Government on ‘risks’ of not replacing Eighth Amendment

Attorney General Séamus Woulfe has been asked to advise the Government on the legal risks of not replacing the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution if voters decide to repeal it in the forthcoming referendum, The Times reports.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said his Government was considering introducing replacing the amendment with text explicitly affirming that abortion law will be set by the Oireachtas.

He alluded to a case currently before the Supreme Court in which the court is considering whether the Constitution confers significant rights upon the “unborn child” beyond the right to life.

Mr Varadkar said: “We would find ourselves in a very strange situation if we repealed the Eighth Amendment only to find out that there are other rights to life that exist in other parts of the constitution that might then make any legislation we pass unconstitutional.”

He added that Mr Woulfe would have to examine that.