Mr. John Saunders:

On the question on mental capacity, my understanding from the heads of the Bill is that the consultant obstetrician in conjunction with two consultant psychiatrists will be asked to assess the validity or otherwise of the suicidality that the woman is stating and, as such, it is not an assessment of her capacity, it is an assessment of the risk of suicide, as expressed, and they then have to make a recommendation based on that. That is a very different thing, as I and the commission understand it, from capacity. As a note of interest, the capacity legislation that is promised in the Dáil takes a view that capacity is neither 0% or 100%. One can have capacity in one area of life and not have capacity in other areas of life. The concept of partial capacity is the principle that people are applying.

In respect of the Health Act 2007, I presume Deputy Terence Flanagan means the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 in regard to the regulation of medical practitioners.

If that is what Deputy Flanagan means, as I understand it every consultant psychiatrist and obstetrician has to be registered under that Act in terms of his or her speciality.

On the review of legislation, I can point Deputy Flanagan to a number of pieces of legislation where, within the Act, a Minister is given power to review either the Act in full or in part at a given period of time. For example, in the Mental Health Act 2006 the current Minister is given the power to review the full Act five years after commencement and therefore make changes in the light of experience. I know also that certain Acts will allow Ministers to act according to advice received on particular issues in the form of ministerial orders or miscellaneous provisions in legislation. Those are the types of legislative reviews that we need to build into the parent Act.