Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for coming before the committee. I agree that all medicines have their danger levels and we are always advised that it is dangerous to overdose. However, I am most worried about health. As legislators, we have a very important role in the health and well-being of the community. If our health experts and our regulatory authorities are not happy and if they specify their reasons, we have to take it into account as our responsibilities are to the public at large. There has been more than one occasion on which particular procedures, which had theimprimaturof the authorities, were followed but wrongly so, as it later transpired, so we have a duty to ensure that whatever we authorise must be clear and we must have due regard to the expert information we get from the authorities whose job is to protect public health and well-being and the public good. There are potential legal liabilities and there is a possibility of the public making claims as a result of proceeding in a direction that is later proved to have been not in the public interest.

As a legislator, I have no hesitation in saying that I have to be bound by the medical and expert opinion given to us. At the moment, that indicates to me that this Bill, as proposed, is not satisfactory and not acceptable.