Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in and for their time. The opening statements were very useful. I want to ask all three groups about timing. This a complex issue. It is the first time we have done this in Ireland and there is much complexity involved for all three organisations. The Medical Council needs to work through the ethical guidelines carefully. By my count there were about six steps in the process between stakeholder reviews, drafts, integrating feedback, coming back together and finally publishing. That is a comprehensive process. The steps outlined for GPs are wideranging. There is legislation, which we will all work on together, there are care pathways from primary to secondary, there is licensing of medications and availability of medications, there are 24-hour helplines, there is some way for people to opt in or out, whatever way it ends up, there is clarification on medical indemnity, which is obviously a hot topic at the moment, there are Medical Council guidelines and so on. There is an awful lot.

Some GPs and obstetricians I have spoken with recently are very worried about the amount of work to be done within the timetable that has been stated by the Government which is that this would be operational on the ground by January. The Medical Council is clearly putting a lot of time into making sure that this works for women in Ireland.

The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has laid out various issues as well. The question I have for the institute is firstly the same question, namely how confident is it that things are progressing in such a way that this could be operational on the ground, to the standards required by January, which is the current goal. Second, specifically on the infrastructure required in hospital or community settings, the institute has made the point that additional diagnostics are required such as ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI. Does it have a sense yet of what we are talking about? Is it five new MRI scanners and doubling ultrasound capacity for example? I ask the institute and the ICGP what other capacity constraints are out there. Diagnostics have been mentioned. When this is up and running, do the witnesses foresee capacity constraints in terms of not having enough GPs? As we all know, GPs are under huge pressure at the moment. Do the witnesses foresee not having enough consultants, obstetricians, operating theatres, acute beds or post termination supports for the women? Could they talk about where the State needs to be quickly investing resources to make sure that there are not bottlenecks through all of this?