Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to put my questions first to the Irish Medical Council representatives. Why do they feel the desire to merge heads 2 and 4? Deputy Kelleher referred to the guidelines which cover the risk of suicide. I assume the IMC monitors its guidelines, so what do the records show with regard to terminations for suicidality since 1992? Also in that regard, does the IMC have records on women who subsequently committed suicide because of post-abortion trauma? Those statistics would be of interest and value to us.

I welcome some of the comments in the report of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Its representatives said they "remain acutely aware of the potential negative consequences for the unborn and in current practice all efforts are exhausted within medical margins of safety to prolong the pregnancy in the foetal interest". In practice, under this legislation, how will the requirement to make those reasonable efforts for the life of the baby actually work? In other words, if the baby is born around the viability period of 22 or 23 weeks, what will effectively happen in practice?

With regard to premature deliveries, can the IOG representatives tell us the potential complications and risks to the baby? I have heard stories that, for example, with early deliveries at 23, 24 or 25 weeks there could be a 50% risk of cerebral palsy. We had a submission from obstetricians and gynaecologists back in January who said that "the psychiatric grounds for abortion on the basis of suicide risk appear non-existent in the view of the experts in this field. An obstetrician, the doctor with responsibility to patients, faced with terminating a normal pregnancy on grounds of suicide risk, will be placed in an impossibly conflicted situation where there is no benefit to the mother". Do the IOG representatives share that view, or what is their opinion be in that regard?