Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in welcoming the witnesses and thank them for their contributions. Dr. Mahony stated that it is important for medical practitioners and women to be afforded the legal protection required to allow appropriate flexibility in making professional clinical decisions based on medical probability of risk to life. I take that to mean that such provisions would include all situations in which certainty indeed existed. I accept that probability would be the criterion on which the decision would be made. The expert group indicated that the State is obliged to provide precision as to the criteria by which a doctor should assess that risk. I take it Dr. Mahony believes that greater precision is achievable. To what extent is precision possible given the complexities that regulation and legislation can present?

If a probability has been professionally asserted that a woman's life is at risk, how would the witnesses envisage the independent review system functioning? Surely it would need specific timeframes for its functionality. There is a lack of clarity on that matter. We raised this issue with the representatives from the Medical Council and I am anxious to hear the witnesses' views or ideas on this aspect of the expert group's recommendations.

We know that sections 58 and 59 of the 1861 Act remain in force in terms of absolute prohibition and associated criminal offences. In the witnesses' respective experiences, has the continued existence of this prohibition impaired or impacted on the decision making of fellow professionals?