Cathal Barry
A senior Government minister has accused a number of TDs of being “obsessed” with the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion.
Praising the Church’s role in education and healthcare here, Health Minister Leo Varadkar warned that some TDs were “a little bit obsessed with the Church for reasons I do not understand”.
The minister was speaking during a Dáil debate on the eight amendment, in which a number of TDs including Ruth Coppinger, John Halligan and Joe Higgins, criticised the Church.
Acknowledging that the Church has “done a lot of wrong down through the years,” Minister Varadkar said “it has also done a lot of good”.
The Dublin West TD noted that most of the primary schools in Ireland were established under the patronage of the Church and “paid for and subsidised by the Church for years”.
“The same applies to hospitals such as the Mater, St Vincent’s and many others which were established by religious orders when the State was either too weak or not sufficiently interested to provide health and education,” he said.
Charities
Minister Varadkar, who was raised as a Catholic, also praised the “enormously powerful and important works” of Catholic charities.
“The pastoral work of parishes is very valuable and faith is very important to a great many people,” he added, before reminding TDs that political decisions should be made “based on what we believe is best for citizens and not our attitude to the Church, whether that be a favourable or a negative one”.
However, regarding the eight amendment, Minister Varadkar said Fine Gael “has not yet had an opportunity to consider” its position on the issue.
