The 13-year old rape victim is now free to leave the country for an abortion following an eight-hour court hearing yesterday. Anti-abortion activists claimed last night that the girl had already gone.
"She's gone. She's on the plane," Mr Peter Scully of Family and Life said.
This was denied by Eastern Health Board sources who confirmed, however, that the girl was free to leave and the decision was entirely her own.
The girl at the centre of the controversy is to remain in the care of the Eastern Health Board following an eight-hour court hearing at the Children's Court yesterday.
The court decided the girl, who is pregnant after being raped, will remain in the temporary care of the board until next week. Despite yesterday's ruling some anti-abortion activists who have linked themselves to the parents and accompanied them to court may contest that decision in the High Court.
New lawyers for the parents, whose costs are being met from a fund established by Youth Defence, argued in court that the girl should be returned to the care of the family.
Meanwhile in Luxembourg the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he has an obligation to prepare legislation on abortion, despite the reservations being expressed by two Independent TDs who support the minority Coalition.
He refused to give any indication, however, as to whether he proposed to legislate for the X case judgment, which allowed abortion in limited circumstances, or to roll back the Supreme Court judgment and restore an absolute ban on abortion.
Mr Ahern told journalists yesterday he had "been through the abortion issue" with Ms Mildred Fox and Mr Harry Blaney before they supported the formation of his Government.
"In fairness and to be absolutely frank about it, it was on the short list of both of them. I explained our position to them and I gave them some of the [Fianna Fail] documents. I remember going through them in great detail," he said.
"I believe we have an obligation to prepare the legislation. I believe we have an obligation to set out the facts following, of course, the Green Paper, which is the effort to bring consensus and then find the mechanism of putting it to the people."
The Taoiseach said that to put it back to the people "by just a simple reference and to have a constitutional amendment would, I think, just continue the major confusion which has been around for years".
He avoided answering the question of whether he would legislate for the X case or roll back the judgment. "I think the legislation has to be comprehensive. It has to deal with all of the areas that are there. The reference to the Constitution might then be a very short reference or the Article 27, one or the other. But the purpose of the reference would be so that you could have a referendum, but that would be in the knowledge of the legislative measures," Mr Ahern said.
He later said the facts were that the situation, as it was since 1992, was left in limbo.
Mark Brennock writes: Mr Blaney has confirmed that he is to seek a meeting to discuss abortion with the Taoiseach next week, along with fellow Independents Ms Fox and Mr Healy-Rae. Mr Ahern is expected to agree to meet them, as his minority Government is reliant on their support in certain Dail votes.
Mr Blaney, who is strongly antiabortion, said yesterday he had an agreement with Mr Ahern on the approach that this Government would take to the abortion issue. It was outlined in a statement given to the Irish Catholic by Mr Ahern on June 5th last, he said, and was similar to that outlined in the Dail last week by the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen. It envisaged a consultation and discussion process which Government sources say could last over two years.
Government sources were yesterday playing down suggestions that the concern of the Independents over the issue posed any short-term threat to the Government's stability. It would take considerable time before the issue would have to be faced in a Dail vote, and even then it was not certain to be a division with all Government deputies on one side and all the rest on the other.
Mr Ahern's statement to the Irish Catholic does not give any indication as to what choice the Government will take on the key issue: whether to roll back the Supreme Court's X case judgment allowing for abortion where a pregnant woman threatens suicide; or whether to amend the Constitution once again in order to reverse the effect of that judgment.
Ms Fox said she favoured "a very simply worded referendum to protect the unborn child" rather than legislation for the X case judgment. Mr Healy-Rae said he would attend the meeting with Mr Ahern to get clarification on the issue, and was "confident" that the matter would be resolved to his satisfaction.