THE LEADER of the Catholic Church in Ireland should be told that if he wanted us to legislate for fundamentalism along the lines of Sharia law, we would give him a call when that arose, Joe O’Toole (Ind) in the Seanad said when criticising “the antics of Armagh” over the European Court of Human Rights ruling on abortion rights.

In the Seanad, Mr O’Toole’s views were described as “intemperate” by fellow Independent Feargal Quinn who stressed the need for care in the use of language over the issue of abortion.

Mr O’Toole said it was a pity the Government had been too cowardly to deal with the outstanding issue as requested by the Supreme Court for quite some time.

Having failed for years to get any movement from the church leadership to take steps to protect abused children and to deal with perverted clerics, was it anything short of outrageous to witness the latest antics from Armagh?

“One mention of pregnancy termination and the church leadership is galvanised into action. The Minister for Foreign Affairs should be asked to send a cable to Armagh on where it is we stand, and let the cobbler stick to his last. They can do the praying up there and we’ll do the legislating down here, thanks very much.”

As John Hanafin (FF) had stated, we were an independent republic, and we would do our own business, added Mr O’Toole. “We won’t be lectured to by any fundamentalist whether he is wearing a red hat in Armagh or a white hat in the Vatican . . . This is not an issue of abortion. This is an issue of protecting pregnant women whose lives are in danger.

“Whereas I wouldn’t have expected the church leadership to be championing women’s rights, I really did believe that where it came to a straight position where a woman’s life was in danger, they would not stand in the way of the appropriate medical treatment in those situations. I find it outrageous. I believe that the Irish people will give a clear . . . answer if they ever are asked the question on this particular issue.”