One of the organisers of yesterday's conference on abortion at UCD has expressed her disappointment that the President, Mrs McAleese, did not attend.
Ms Breda O'Brien, one of the joint organisers, said she had believed the President would be opening the conference, which was originally scheduled to take place last May, and had sent out invitations to health-care professionals and the media to say as much.
But Mrs McAleese's special adviser, Ms Eileen Gleeson, said yesterday that the President had never agreed to open the event. On receiving an invitation in July she had replied within a week to say she would not be attending.
She said Mrs McAleese had been in contact with the organisers earlier in the year in relation to "a similar kind of conference. It was going to be an academic conference for professionals."
However, she said the President was informed by the organisers that anticipated funding from a Government department had not been forthcoming.
"We had a call to say it was not happening in May, that it was postponed and had no further communication after that until we received the invitation on the week of July 20th," Ms Gleeson added.
