The Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) has said it has not made a decision on the future funding of Cura, despite a claim in today's Irish Catholic newspaper that the CPA is set to withhold the €600,000 annual funding.
A spokeswoman for the CPA said it was still in negotiations with Cura on the matter. The disagreement centres around the provision of information on abortion services.
Cura is the crisis pregnancy organisation of the Catholic Church and it does not give women information about abortion services.
However, under its contract with the CPA, it is required to refer women for further counselling to other State-funded agencies that do provide this information.
Its annual €600,000 funding is contingent on fulfilling all elements of the CPA's service level agreement.
According to today's Irish Catholic, Cura will not distribute the Positive Options leaflet again, or any equivalent.
This leaflet lists 12 State-funded Irish agencies, including Cura, which offer help to women experiencing crisis pregnancies.
"We have received no confirmation from Cura on this position at this point," the CPA spokeswoman said.
"The Crisis Pregnancy Agency understands from Cura that it is waiting for direction from the June meeting of the Irish Episcopal Conference scheduled for 12th-14th June in relation to whether they can continue to comply with the service agreement made with the agency in 2002," she added.
Last year, Cura counsellors in its 16 centres around the State were requested by the bishops to stop giving clients the CPA's Positive Options leaflet.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Cura said discussions were continuing with the CPA.
"We are in negotiations with the CPA and it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this stage," Cura spokeswoman Charlotte Keary told The Irish Times.
Time is running out on the discussions, as Cura's quarterly funding ends later this month and the CPA's board meeting scheduled for June 20th will make a decision on the issue.
Since Cura stopped providing this referral information to women, its counsellors have been referring clients seeking abortion information to their GPs.
However, this is not acceptable to the CPA, as the service offered by GPs varies greatly around the State.
Two weeks ago, it emerged that the four Donegal pregnancy counsellors at the centre of a row with the CPA over the issue are to have their suspensions lifted.
The four women were suspended by Cura for breach of confidentiality after they contacted the media last year, highlighting their objections to distributing the leaflet.
