Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The representatives from Dignitas stated that the strength of a society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable and argued we should focus on improving quality of life for the vulnerable. If someone presents to Dignitas for an end-of-life treatment, what alternatives are offered? How does the organisation explore the patient’s reasons for presenting and what does it offer them to improve their life? Mr. Luley mentioned documentation that needs to be submitted. What type of documentation is required and what is the timeframe between when somebody makes an application and when the procedure is carried out? He stated there were 57 Irish members in 2020 and 80 in 2022. Are they people who have signed up to and may use Dignitas's service at some future time?

Professor Boer, if I understand him correctly, advocated for Ireland decriminalising assisted suicide and allowing it to happen when it needs to happen but not putting a formal structure in place. He mentioned leading a review of 4,000 cases and if I heard him right, he said that only two of those 4,000 were people of colour and from non-western countries. Obviously it is a very big cultural thing. Does he believe that the introduction of this and the expansion of what is permitted over a period of time has been a result of a cultural shift? Is it maybe to do with less value being placed on life and perhaps, as he said himself, people not being as resilient today as maybe they were a number of years ago or a number of decades ago? Considering that somebody of 74 can rock up and end their life for no reason whatsoever, that sends an awful signal to our ageing population that at 74 years of age life is no longer worth living, for all intents and purposes. He mentioned the end-of-life centre that has been established in the Netherlands. It is that privately operated for profit?