Ellen Coyne
speaker
622 appearances
9 recordings
5 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 18 Jun
Ellen Coyne’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 9 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 4.
Appearances
Yes, that's right.
So because this issue relates to the issue of abortion, there's a free vote available to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs to vote in line with their conscience rather than a party position.
Now, we knew going into this that Simon Harris, Micheál Martin and Minister for Health, Jennifer Carl McNeill, had all indicated that they would be in favour of dropping the mandatory three-day wait for abortion.
The vote passed by 86 votes to 70, but I suppose what's interesting and significant is
Even allowing for that free vote is that you had a lot of senior members of the cabinet going against the bill.
Jim O'Callaghan, James Brown, Martin Hayden, Norma Foley, Derek Leary and Peter Burke.
And while the party leadership was in favour of the bill, they were not in line with their TDs.
30 Fianna Fáil TDs voted against it compared to 12 who supported it.
There was a similar position in Fine Gael as well, where 26 voted against it and only 11 supported it.
Exactly.
Like, I wouldn't over-interpret it too much because it is a free vote.
So this wouldn't be like an act of defiance against Simon Harris or Micheál Martin.
But I suppose as this bill makes its way through the Oireachtas, the first question is, will it actually pass?
Like, will the position be the same with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael senators who we don't really know yet?
Would they be more in line with the leadership or more in line with the rest of the parliamentary party?
And the debate, I imagine, will be who is more in line with the public on this.
You know, the argument up until now, which had been made by people like Simon Harris, was that this three-day wait was part of the deal the government made with the public in 2018.
They showed us the law first and they said, this will be our abortion law if you vote repeal.
So removing anything from that law should be like a very serious matter.
On the other hand, there is a lot of evidence, including from a 2023 independent report, that the three day waiting period is blocking some women from accessing abortion services at all.
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