Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raised the issue not out of prurience or to know who the individuals concerned might be. Section 15 makes provision for the reporting mechanism and provides for it to be anonymous. However, in the context of governance and of being in a position to have an informed overview of the effect of the legislation, we need a record. It is not just about the number of applications that have been certified. The certification process will only deal with those who have been granted an entitlement, be it under section 7, 8 or 9. We need the information in the context of being able to say we have an informed overview of the operation. We should be able to say we had X number of applications, of which 5%, 50% or 80% were granted under section 7, 20% under section 8 and X amount under section 9.

The information being sought does not seek in any way to compromise the identities of applicants. It is purely so that we can know the numbers who seek to avail of the procedure, whether they are subsequently granted or refused permission. The information made available should not identify the patients in any way. Provision is made in the review mechanism for the information to be provided in an anonymous fashion. Therefore, in the context of regulations, which one would say is about the forms used, etc., these might be an appropriate vehicle to provide this record. If not, this is something that could be included separately in sections 7, 8 and 9. In order to have the appropriate overview so as to know effectively what we are providing for and the results in terms of availing of the provisions, it would be useful to know how many people applied and were refused. It seems like a contradiction that we will make that provision available on review but it is not being included in the regulations. Perhaps it is in the context of the forms that we should provide for a record of "certification granted" or "certification denied".