Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are two lessons we should all take from today's discussion. The first relates to the funding that is needed to upgrade maternal facilities in this State and the second is the need for supports for the thousands of women who have had abortions and are suffering in silence. Those two issues must be addressed.

Earlier today Dr. Peter Boylan mentioned the submission to the committee by the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. My understanding is that copies of that submission have been given to members. I would appreciate if non-members might also be furnished with a copy before the end of this session.

I thank the witnesses for their contributions this evening. I apologise for missing some of the discussion, but I have their written submissions. Medical and scientific fact is location-neutral and whether the opinion is given from the shadow of the mast at Donnybrook, on the banks of the River Suck or beside the Treaty Stone, I value that opinion in equal measure. I hope the contributions here this evening get the same airing and status as those that were given earlier.

The witnesses might be able to help me with a particular issue in respect of which I am a little confused. Dr. Sam Coulter-Smith, who indicated that he was speaking on his own behalf, expressed grave reservations about head 4. Dr. Peter Boylan and Dr. Rhona Mahony, on the other hand, did not seem to have the same reservations. I understand those two witnesses were also speaking on their own behalf; as I recall, they did not answer the question as to whether they were speaking on behalf of their colleagues. I am trying to ascertain the crossover in terms of whether personal opinion can have an impact on expert opinion, or are they one and the same? One might reasonably assume in the case of medical or scientific information that the facts are there, yet there seems to be such a divergence of views on the implications of head 4. Can the expert view be overshadowed or influenced, subliminally or otherwise, by the personal view?