Cora Sherlock confirms it was not her decision to drop out of Prime Time debate

Cora Sherlock has confirmed that it was not her decision to drop out of this week's debate on the eighth amendment.

The pro-life campaigner said that she was "not involved" in the decision to remove her from the Prime Time debate which aired on RTE earlier this week. Rather, she said the Love Both campaign "had difficulty with a doctor not being front and centre for the final debate." Speaking on RTE this afternoon, the solicitor said:

"(The decision) wasn't something I was involved with. "There was a little bit of meddling. It wasn't something I was in any way in favour of or, indeed, involved with."

Sherlock also said that she had wanted to debate Minister for Health Simon Harris on the programme and that she had been preparing to do so beforehand. She said:

"I did absolutely. I wanted to debate Simon Harris. "But I don't think it would have made any difference. We'll never know how that debate would have gone."

It was announced that Sherlock had pulled out of the debate just hours before the programme was due to go live. Following this, Professor Mary Higgins from the 'Yes' side also agreed to drop out to allow Minister Harris and Sinn Fein's Peadar Tóibín to debate alone.