Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe:

With regard to suicide, we would defer to our psychiatric colleagues regarding making an assessment. They are trained in assessing patients, as we all are as doctors in assessing medical risk. I understand the committee will have a full day on the psychiatric evidence on Monday so in terms of the prediction of suicide, we would defer to the specialists involved.

In respect of the numbers, limited termination of pregnancy is permitted in Northern Ireland where there is a lethal foetal abnormality, there is a risk of permanent damage to the health of the mother or there is a risk to the life of the mother. Northern Ireland has very small numbers of cases. There are approximately 40 cases every year in Northern Ireland so it has not seen huge numbers of cases or a big requirement for increasing capacity. I suspect that we would see very low numbers of cases as well.