Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments made by my colleague, Deputy Catherine Byrne, in regard to Dr. Seán Ó Domhnaill's comments. I appreciate that the witnesses are present voluntarily but my understanding is that we are here, on a point of information, to put a legislative framework on existing medical practice, as set out on foot of the constitutional amendment, on foot of the Supreme Court ruling and a requirement of the European Court of Justice on the Legislature. I was struck by a number of the categorical statements made by some of the contributors. To reiterate them - mental illness is as important as physical illness. I agree with that.

The second statement was that there is no way of predicting who will commit suicide. The third is that we do not categorically know the motivations of the 5,000 women who leave this country.

I shall return to the questions raised by my colleagues Deputies Kelleher and Ó Caoláin. Why would a psychiatric colleague prescribe a treatment that does not stem from an evidence base? The evidence that was given to the committee on Friday from other colleagues was that this was not a feature of the Irish medical profession and they did not regard it as a serious threat. There seems to be an element of mistrust among members of the medical profession; they do not trust other colleagues.

I was struck also by comments made by speakers who suggested that the judgment of a woman who presented as suicidal was "impaired" and, as such, nothing that the woman would say, in effect, could be believed, for want of a better word. In other words, her threat of suicide could not be taken as a real threat. I was struck again by statement made by the girl at the centre of the X case, who stated that she only became suicidal after treatment was withheld from her. Can that be reconciled?

I want to ask Dr. Montwill a specific question. Given what she claims is a lack of evidence, can she guarantee - and I use the word "guarantee" in a legal sense - that a woman who presents as suicidal can be cured by her, without ever having recourse to termination of a pregnancy?