Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
HEALTH MINISTER SIMON Harris today kicked off the Dáil’s debate on the report of Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment by listing the counties of those women who travelled to Britain for abortions.
The three and a half hour debate saw TDs give their opinions on the report, which recommends that Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution should be repealed.
Article 40.3.3 deals with the right to life of a pregnant mother and her unborn.
Its place in the Constitution effectively bans abortion from taking place legally in most scenarios in Ireland.
Opening the debate, Harris said it marked “another moment on a long journey”.
“Real women like the 36 from County Carlow who travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2016, or the 38 from Mayo, the 69 women from Tipperary, the 85 from Wicklow, the 241 from Cork or the 1,175 women from Dublin.
“Women from every county in the Republic of Ireland travelled to the UK in 2016. I think we need to acknowledge them all.
49 from Kerry and 130 from Kildare. 21 from Leitrim and 20 from Roscommon. 69 from Wexford.
33 from Cavan and 15 from Monaghan. 99 from Limerick. 53 from Clare. 38 from Westmeath. 63 from Donegal. 113 from Galway. 44 from Kilkenny. 42 from Laois. 83 from Louth and 100 from Meath. 28 from Offaly and 29 from Sligo. 16 from Longford. 56 from Waterford.
In 2016, 3,265 Irish women travelled to the UK alone and we know that Irish women travel to other countries like the Netherlands too. Over 1,200 of the women who went to the UK were aged between 30 and 39 and over 1,500 were aged between 20 and 29. 255 were aged 40 or over. 10 were girls under the age of 16. 230 were teenagers. Over half of the women who travelled were married, in a civil partnership, or in a relationship. 85% of the women were between 3 and 12 weeks pregnant. It is estimated that at least 170,000 Irish women have travelled to other countries for abortions since 1980.
These are not faceless women. They are our friends and neighbours, sisters, cousins, mothers, aunts, wives. Each woman is dealing with her own personal situation and making what is a deeply difficult decision.
The debate heard from Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, who called for a referendum that puts a simple repeal of the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution to the people. Her party leader Gerry Adams said that while he had his own opinion, he did not feel like he could impose it on others.
“It is not for any of us here to cast judgement on anybody for doing what they feel they need to do.
“It is for women to make that judgement.”
Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte, a member of the committee, said that hearing testimony from a father whose child had a fatal foetal abnormality was a “turning point” for her.
“He doesn’t want anybody, ever again, to go through what he went through.
“And do you know what? Neither do I.”
Her experiences were echoed by Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton, another member of the committee. She said that while she wished no woman had to have an abortion, she could not support the status quo.
On the other side, Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae told the Dáil that “thousands” of lives had been saved by the amendment.
“People voted for the Eighth Amendment in huge numbers – it has saved many lives.
“It could be 100,000 lives, it could be 50,000 – it could be 5,000 people saved by the Eighth Amendment.”
The debate resumes tomorrow.
Watch the full debate below.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I had an underpaid job. I left and got a job that paid more. It was a lot quicker than industrial action.
@John Horan: I have friends who’ve changed jobs three or four times thinking that the next one will magically be better. Industrial action is the long term solution.
@John Horan: hardly helpful when you’ve built a career that you like in a specific industry.
@John Horan: would you make the same comment if this article was referring to nursing? I think not but you got a few likes so that’s the main thing.
@Ro-your-nan: surely you’re not comparing the importance of the gaming industry to nursing?? #facepalm
@Liz Greehy: he surely isn’t from what I can see
@Stephanie Fitzgerald: sorry I didn’t realise that the businesses were run solely for the benefit of the employees
@SC: in the long term industrial action reduces the efficiency of the company so less profits. That really helps the ability of the employers to pay a good salary
@John Horan: underpaying your staff and running them into the ground doesn’t benefit anybody in the long run. They’re not asking for much – pay that allows them some quality of life and a reasonable limit on overtime work to prevent burnout. This is an industry with lots of potential to contribute to and diversify the economy a bit. It deserves some investment and fairness.
@B Collins: even to the point where the company is no longer viable?
@John Horan: even to the point, no staff no company
@John Horan: Plenty of soft jobs for the likes of you with your Blueshirt connections. Outside the privileged bubble it’s a different world.
@John Horan: Industrial action is required because of how developers are treated across the board by the industry. Must have been very nice for you to be able to move jobs within your field, clearly its that simple for everyone!
Throughout my teenage years I dreamt to work in game development. When I picked my degree I decided to go into software engineering. But by the time it came to career I understood the better software jobs were not in game development.
If you look at it from the perspective of the company, they make massive investments into the development of a game they dont know would sell enough to cover the costs. Its extremely risky. So the industry is rife with keeping costs low and axing staff when a game doesn’t perform well in the market. It’s near impossible to be exactly sure how much your game would earn for the company, even if you somehow new it was a damn good game a bigger developer could come out with something similar and take away your share of the market with better advertisement.
Personally I wouldn’t recommend taxes being invested in this industry.
@Colm A. Corcoran: This is true of every creative industry, there is always a risk when making an entertainment product that it will be unsuccessful. However the film, theater and music industries receive lots of public funding to mitigate these risks because of their cultural value as well as the variety of jobs they provide to musicians, writers, costume designers, set designers, camera operators etc… Games offer the same cultural value and provide jobs in software, art, music, animation, writing and design. They also offer the potential for significant commerical success.
@Colm A. Corcoran: and, especially for a newer company, a commercially successful game doesn’t mean finances are good.
The first Witcher game was CD projekt reds first game. They literally learned to make videos games as they made it. It was a massive hit. Yet.. the second d game almost didn’t happen, because they came really close to being bankrupt despite the success of the first game. Really shows just how fragile the industry is, in many ways.
@Ciarán: I’d argue it’s a little more extreme with game development. People spend more time and money enjoying a game compared to say a movie, play or painting, so competing games would have less consumers that buy both compared to competing movies, plays or paintings.
They will be comparing themselves to doctors and nurses etc next. People think that they have an entitlement to great pay. But people don’t. Leave and find a better paying job. These companies can only pay low wages if they have a glut of people looking for the roles.
@john s: I get your point John, but I would look at the bigger picture. The games development industry earns more revenue than the film & music industry combined. Ireland is trying to position itself as a tech hub. Therefore we should be looking to be a key player in this industry. A foreward looking government would have a plan for this. Not involved in this industry at all, & no idea what is best way to way to make us gaming hub. But looking after workers to a basic level where they get payed for most of the hours they work doesn’t seem outrageous.
@Writeon: Very common in salaried positions to work way more than 40 hours per week.
@D’oh: also not uncommon for that to balance out with some time in lieu or financial compensation in the form of performance bonus.
@john s: nobody but clearly if transactional costs aren’t been met well then they will be disengaged nothing to do with who has better career
I want to be paid the same as a top surgeon, it’s not fair that I’m not, I want a forever home in D4 and a new BMW X5 in the drive!!!
@D’oh: yeah. Stupid employees. Settle for what you got. How dare you try improve your lot in life!
@D’oh: me too except for D4. No amount of money could make me live there
@Kian David Griffin: Sometimes people need to make wise career choices to be financially rewarded. If they are creating games for the love of creating games then that’s their choice.
@D’oh: Plenty of higher paying coding/IT careers out there.
@D’oh: ridiculing something nobody ever said isn’t a very clever way to argue
@D’oh: the low paid people in games aren’t the programmers (though pay is lower than equivalent roles in non games tech). It’s typically QA, artists, animators and musicians who get shafted
@Ciarán: Low skilled jobs pay less than high skilled jobs????
@SC: I never said it was.
@D’oh: where do you work, Mr perfect?
@Brianto: Dublin.
@D’oh: art, animation and design aren’t lower skills just different skills. Most people doing them will have higher qualifications.
All the snooty comments here..if any of ye with yer smart comments looked up the way gaming is going, it’s going to take the majority shares in sports soon then ye would have a different outlook at it..gaming events selling out massive arenas over and over again..look up esports.. Says it all really.
@Craig Clancy: great then the pay will go up as the demand goes up
That’s what happens when your on the game
@Joe Mc: Ha ha, i was wondering if a “game worker” was a new euphemism for a somewhat older profession myself.
@Morning Gus:
Unlikely that the average gamer would have interest in services of the older profession!
Let’s stop using the phase “the state should invest”. What people really mean when they say this is – I want to compel other citizens by force of law to give THEIR hard earned money to MY special interest area because I THINK its important.
No! our hard earned money should be used on getting the basic things that impact us all right – healthcare, education, infrastructure and care for people who can’t care for themselves (as opposed to those who just aren’t bothered to) If people value “culture” then individuals can support it voluntarily based on what they can afford. If “gaming” is like to result in ROI, then savvy individuals will voluntarily invest in it.
Most of the skills involved in games development are highly transferable to other, much better paid sectors of software development. It’s unfortunately an industry that capitalises on being a “dream job” for so many through terrible pay, inhumane crunch conditions near a project deadline and very little job security.
It has such a high worker turnover for that reason with few lasting more than 5 years but I don’t see it changing with so many software graduates dreaming of a career in gaming. Regulating for better conditions won’t work either and would just see studios move abroad, it’s an industry wide problem globally.
If businesses had their way, they’d pay their employees with “more experience” and low pay for these college-educated positions.
I hear the toilet makers are not happy with pay as well.all out lads.
@Seriously stunned: games development may sound like a bunch of millenials trying to find a way to not do any real work, but it actually involves many years of dedication and hard work just to break into the market; learning and training with a ton of different technologies and obtaining Computer Science degrees or even Masters … and these are TOUGH…a lot of discrete maths and programing languages to say the least. Not for the faint brained. Think engineering on steroids. Actually, CS has some of the highest drop-out rate of any discipline because its so hard. So yeah, same as toilet makers…
@RobPup: Very true, but as has been pointed out to me, these guys are paid well, it’s the low skilled people, like the testers and quality control who, just like in other industries, don’t get huge salaries. They just get what the market is willing to pay.
@RobPup: nice dig but us millenials majority study and work hard m
@jnulty17@gmail.com: But can ye construct coherent sentences?
@Seriously stunned: today I learned toilet manufacturing is the same as advanced computer programming. Riveting opinions here in the journal comments
Move to a career in software development all the c and c++ experience among other languages would have them a shoe in for a better job and a bigger salary if gaming dreams don’t always come through to so if your not happy move industry get a better paying job and be happy. I would rather be happy with my job and pay than be happy just for the sector I work in
Surely these issues are cover in normal employment law. They are concerned about ‘low pay’- there’s laws around min wage, overtime-again there are rules, if your not getting paid politely say you have other plans, uncertain working hours – get a contract!! Its the industry your in… work in a different industry if your not happy with the money. You don’t have an automatic right to get a well paid job that’s ur hobby…
Shadt industry exploting young workers. The Dept of Labour should investigate this industry and their compliance with the WTD.
have your say