ABSTRACT

The Treaty on European Union created a conflict of interest in the Republic. The great financial attractions of being a member state-Ireland receives six pounds from the Community for every pound it subscribes to it-are to an important extent offset by the moral dilemma which membership creates. To eliminate the possibility of European Community treaties (including the Maastricht Treaty) undermining Ireland’s constitutional abortion restrictions, Ireland negotiated a protocol, that is to say a protection clause, with the twelve member states, to safeguard its right to retain Article 40 (3.3). Protocol 17 provides that:

Nothing in the Treaty on European Union, or in the Treaties establishing the European Communities, or in the Treaties or Acts modifying or supplementing those Treaties, shall affect the application in Ireland of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland.1