Prostitution should be legal and abortion is permissible in some circumstances, Independent Ireland party leader Michael Collins has said in a new interview.
In a wide-ranging interview with magazine, the Cork South-West TD, who leads the newest party in the country, says he believes that he and his colleagues could return with up to 15 Dáil seats at the next general election and would have no objection to going into coalition with Sinn Féin.
Mr Collins was announced in November as the leader of the Independent Ireland party, the 27th party in the State, with Limerick County TD Richard O’Donoghue as general secretary. In February, the party announced the recruitment of Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice.
On the subject of abortion and the case of Savita Halappanavar, Mr Collins said there are some instances in which he believes that abortion is the decision of a medical professional.
‘There’s about 10,000 abortions a year here — they’re not all Savita Halappanavar cases,’ said TD Michael Collins. Picture: Charles
They’re very legitimate cases. I think a medical professional has to always make a call on issues like that. When it comes to medical decisions it’s wrong for me to question a medical professional…
The TD told the magazine’s Jason O’Toole that he believes that sex work should be legalised as those involved are “providing a service”.
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What do they call this? The oldest trade in the world. I think people that are trafficking these people in here need to be gone after. But some people are in difficult positions financially and they’re not in one way hurting anybody. And they’re providing a service.”
He adds that rapists and paedophiles should be chemically castrated and that criminals should automatically get a 25-year sentence for their third conviction. However, he believes that people should be allowed to defend themselves with firearms.
“I think that if a person has a legally-held firearm and somebody’s going to hurt or attack them, they should be allowed to use that.
Mr Collins goes on to say that he believes asylum seekers should be held in Australian-style “holding bays”, that “nobody should get a free run on this island”, and that Ireland should ban the burqa in schools. He adds that he does not believe that Travellers should be considered an ethnic minority.
Mr Collins has previously told the that he hopes to field up to 50 candidates in the upcoming local elections. He has said that the party will look to fill a space in the political spectrum which he believes is under-served.
He said the party would differ from both Government and opposition parties on immigration, where he says the country has “gone beyond breaking point”, and on climate policies, which he says have “attacked rural living”.
The full interview can be seen in the newest issue of .
