Dr. Anthony McCarthy:

Each member is an elected member of council. The council made the decision. Like everybody else, we were given a brief time to consult our members. We quickly emailed every member of the college seeking their views on the heads of this Bill. Those who have made the most noise and expressed dissatisfaction with the college, claiming it is not representative, individually sent a written submission to the council. All were considered at council.

Equally, we held a meeting, which included Dr. Sheehan, to discuss overall issues in advance of discussing them at council. As the elected decision making body of the college, council is the sole approved body recognised by the Medical Council. We made that decision unanimously and all of us on council would stand over it.

Clinical research would be impossible on the specific issue before us because abortion is available in England. I described in my opening statement - I do not know whether the Deputy was here - what such a study would have to do in order to prove this. In regard to whether there is a clinical study on suicidal assessment in general, absolutely there is. In respect of our guidelines and studies on assessing the risk of suicide, we can never predict a suicide with certainty. We are not actuaries but we are experts at assessing risk and, where we can, treating the causes of that risk and managing and helping the individual concerned. A significant body of research has been produced over many years on that specific issue. On the issue of abortions there never will be such a body of research and if we are waiting for that obviously there will be no legislation.