Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Thompson for his very detailed and useful presentation. My first question, about the dangers of a strict definition of lethal abnormality, has been partly answered but could Mr. Thompson expand a bit on why the flexibility is important in terms of deferring to medical professions and say how that works in practice? If the legislation is more flexible are there standard guidelines that the medical profession would work from or would it depend on the doctor or consultant a woman is assigned to?

Mr. Thompson mentioned in his presentation that when a woman is beyond 24 weeks' gestation a team of hospital managers, two clinicians, a neonatologist and a midwife meet to assess whether to perform the termination after 24 weeks. Could he comment on the rate of abortions in these cases and if any are declined, why?

My third question is about an issue Mr. Thompson said he did not want to speak on. I would like him to comment on it but if he does not want to that is fair enough. It is ground D, when continuance of the pregnancy would have a harmful impact on the other children of the woman. We have not discussed that very much, apart from the socio-economic grounds. I do not know whether it would fall under that heading. Could Mr. Thompson expand a bit on that and how we would encompass that in our legislation? How is it assessed, is it based on the word of the woman saying her family would be negatively affected? It would be great if Mr. Thompson could walk us through that.