Ms Sara Philips:

Ms Ryan has stated no other European country considers age in the context of children. Malta has considered the matter and its legislation contains a provision in respect of those under 18 years. The Netherlands is proposing to change its legislation in order to include those under 18 years.

If the Chairman does not object, I would like to direct a question to the officials from the Department on the physician's letter. How does the Department intend to cope with the fact that there are very few experts dealing with this issue in Ireland? Only a very small number of people could sign off on the letters in question. Professor O'Shea may agree that even when people are trying to obtain sign-off in their surgeries, their physicians can often be overloaded with work. As a result, we have struggled to obtain access to funding, obtain referrals, etc. While the Registrar General has stated it may take a few days to issue a physician's letter, it might take much longer for it to arrive.