Dr. Jacqueline Montwill:

There are no data to support Professor O'Keane's point on approximately 10% of Irish women dying. This is all supposition. In Irish society most people know of an aunt or single woman who, because of society’s norms at the time, committed suicide because she was pregnant. One would hope that would not happen in modern Ireland. There are no data to suggest that such a high rate existed. Dr. Dermot Walsh wrote a letter to that effect to The Irish Times and he has been the inspector of mental health hospitals for many years.

The other issue I wish to clarify is that there are no data for any of the assumptions on the suicidality of women who are going to England. If women have mental illness, we hope that their first port of call, their GPs, would be able to assess it, or their family, and we have to advocate that in society so that all mental illness is treated. That is the issue at stake.

It is important to reiterate what Dr. McCabe said on the submission from the college. We received the email on Friday. There are approximately 350 consultants in the college but I am not sure about the exact numbers. We sent in our submissions and only 30 of them were received by Wednesday evening. An emergency meeting was held on Thursday and a draft was supposedly unanimously agreed. We have no idea what was in the draft. None of us saw the text of the submission. We repeatedly asked about it by e-mail on Thursday and Friday and we were told it would only be published on Monday. I have not read the submission because I did not have time today, except for two points: 72 hours is far too short to have some poor suicidal woman going through a process and being directed immediately to an abortion. That is an abomination. The second point is how the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland does not mention evidence-based treatment for suicidality. The public should be informed of the evidence base for every treatment for suicidality. I have serious concerns about the submission but I have not seen the text. That is the issue. We have not seen the submission.