Enda Kenny is not worse than Herod

I have known Enda Kenny for a long time. I have socialised with him over a number of years and I know he is basically a decent man.

I disagree fundamentally with his handling of the economy. I believe he is putting too heavy a burden on ordinary people while letting those who caused the economic mess we are in off scot-free.

He, like most members of the Government, made a lot of promises before the last general election that they have failed to carry out. It is quite likely that they never intended to carry out those promises anyway.

He condemned Fianna Fáil for their mismanagement of the economy and then he proceeded to oversee his own Government following the same path put down by Fianna Fáil. How can you possibly trust politicians if they say one thing when they are in Opposition but proceed to do the opposite as soon as they get into power?

To say, however, that Enda Kenny is worse than Herod is crazy. The Taoiseach revealed at the weekend that he has been “branded as being worse than Herod” by people across the country because of the Government’s plan to legislate for very limited abortion.

Herod, as you know, according to the Gospel of St Matthew, ordered the slaughter of innocent children over 2,000 years ago in his mad plan to end the life of the baby Jesus.

You could, if you like, say that only a nut case could possibly describe our Taoiseach as “being worse than Herod”. You could say that the Taoiseach should ignore such crazy abuse.

Nearly every politician has to put up with abuse of all kinds because of something they might say or do in public. Although they try to do so, politicians cannot possibly please all the people all the time.

I do not look on Enda Kenny as a strong leader, a man of iron will. As a matter of fact, I would look on him as a bit of a softie. So he would not be as well able as others might be to put up with personal abuse. But he shouldn’t have to either. This type of abuse is typical of the kind of vile and scurrilous language used during previous abortion debates.

“I am not in the business of liberalising abortion. I am not in the business of providing abortion on demand,” Deputy Kenny insisted.

I know he is telling the truth there. Enda Kenny would be one of the last people in the Dáil that you could possibly brand as an abortionist. As far as I am aware, he is a devout Catholic coming from one of the most devout counties in Ireland. He would have nothing to gain from being in favour of abortion. In fact, he would have everything to lose.

Enda Kenny would much prefer to leave things as they are without bringing in new legislation or regulations, as previous taoisigh have done for decades. What is happening is that he is forced to face an issue that he and the other major political parties would prefer to forget.

Most people know something about the X case in which an underage girl was made pregnant through rape and was refused permission to travel to England for an abortion.

Subsequently, the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, ruled that a pregnant woman had the right to an abortion if her life was at risk, including the risk of suicide. They said the Government must legislate for that.

However, various governments down the years ignored that demand and eventually the European Court ruled that Ireland had to legislate in accordance with the Supreme Court in the X case.

That’s what this Government is trying to do. The Government has still to produce the legislation but, basically, it will allow for the termination of a pregnancy when the life of the mother is as risk, including the risk of suicide, as established by the Supreme Court.

There is no question of allowing an abortion, for example, in the case of rape or incest. There is no question of providing abortion on demand, as claimed in some very hysterical speeches at a mass pro-life rally in Dublin last weekend.

The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the Government’s plan to legislate for this limited type of abortion. The Church fully supported last Saturday’s rally of 25,000 people in Dublin and a number of bishops participated. The Church stands by the right to life of both mother and unborn child. Furthermore, the Church maintains that life begins at the moment of conception.

The Catholic Church is quite entitled to its view. If it wants to maintain that a foetus has an equal right to life as that of a grown woman, that too is ok with me. But I do not believe it has the right to demand that we must all go along with that.

There is only one Government in this State and while we may not like what it is doing, we have to accept its legal authority.

The vast majority of the Irish people are Catholics and whether or not they obey the rules of that Church is a matter for them. Canon law does not have the same clout as does the law of the land. The Catholic Church no longer enjoys a special position in our Constitution.

The minimum the Government can do is legislate in accordance with the ruling of the Supreme Court. They are obliged to do that and I hope they can do so without the type of intimidation that Fine Gael TDs are being subjected to at present.