Dr. Anthony McCarthy:

The first Deputy who spoke referred to manipulation. He raised the prospect of doctors manipulating stuff, abusing their responsibilities, flouting the law and so forth. I cannot promise him that no doctor in the country will do that, in the same way that I cannot promise it for any politician, obstetrician or, indeed, anyone else in this country. I can certainly say that the standard in psychiatry, in general, is such that I would hope, at all times, practitioners would not do that. Anybody who does that is breaking the law. There is a constitutional obligation to protect the life of the unborn, where that is practicable and I would hope that every psychiatrist in the country would practice that. I agree that society in general should be alert to the possibility that individuals may flout the law and it is the responsibility of the State to make sure that does not happen.

In response to Senator Mullen's question about Department of Health contact, as far as I am aware, as a college, we were not contacted in any way. As individuals, I cannot speak for Dr. Sheehan but I know that my other colleagues were not contacted. I had one telephone call from the Department, which fed into the radio interview referred to. I was asked to check if it was true that there were really only three perinatal psychiatrists in the country. In the body politic, the question had arisen of having three or even six people to assess women and having another six to assess on appeal. That would mean that 12 people would be involved and I was asked if it was true that there were only three perinatal psychiatrists here. I was also asked for some of the details of attachment. I was consulted about that specific question but not about anything else.

I was asked if I believed my contribution was taken on board. I would point out first that it was not my contribution but a joint statement to the Oireachtas agreed by myself, Dr. Fenton, Dr. Sheehan and Dr. Doyle. We agreed it together and it was not a formal position of the college. It was a contribution from three of us as perinatal psychiatrists and Dr. Doyle as a child psychiatrist, who we wanted to be there. No questions were directed to her on that day but I am pleased that she is here today and questions have been directed to her. As to whether that contribution was taken on board, I would hope so. We met here in January to inform and are here today again to inform. We are not here to tell the Legislature what to do. We are here to inform Deputies and Senators about the reality of clinical practice and the realities of the situations we have to face. I really do hope that our contributions are taken on board and I think some of the heads of the Bill do reflect some learning that is going on for the legislature and the Department.

Regarding the particular issue I spoke about in the aforementioned radio interview, I had heard that there was a possibility of many psychiatrists being involved. Then The Sunday Times published an article suggesting that up to 12 doctors might be involved in assessments. Frankly, I thought it was my responsibility, as somebody who deals with difficult women, to speak up. Who came up with the conception that a woman who might be suicidally depressed in pregnancy would see 12 people? What was he or she thinking? Was the thinking based on the idea of some young girl who got drunk one night and had casual sex, who did not take the pill and got pregnant, and who would come along and fool us and, therefore, we must have 12 people to hear her? Did he or she ever think that this woman may have been sexually abused or raped, that the baby might be her father's or that she might have already tried to remove that baby by stabbing herself in the stomach? How could such a woman be expected to talk to 12 people?

That is why I came out so animatedly that morning on "Morning Ireland". If that has had an effect, I am very glad it has had an effect.