Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the witnesses for their presentations. I am struggling with the presentation. I do not mean this to be in any way disrespectful to Professor Binchy. The purpose of this committee is to discuss the potential legal implications of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly. We sought information and evidence from those who presented to us. Regrettably what we have received from Professor Binchy is opinion and the use of what I would describe as highly emotive language. I do not think it adds much to our debate or is in any way helpful. Perhaps we did not make it clear that we sought evidence. When we hear various decisions but no quotes it does not in any way help us to arrive at conclusions. The statement Professor Binchy gave us contained a reference to his own personal experience. That is opinion; it is neither evidence nor information, which is what we sought.

We asked previous presenters to detail for us the grades of risk in terms of health and whether it is possible to define in law terms such as "serious risk" and "grave risk". Will Ms Zampas address that? I understand it is difficult but she might be able to give us some information in that regard from her experience. For the benefit of the committee, will she comment on Professor Binchy's statement that the monitoring bodies have a particular value system and that it somehow influences the decisions they come to or that in some way they are biased. There was no evidence given as to what the value system is or to how it manifests itself. Will Ms Zampas give us her view on what that is?