Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the committee. In 2022, there was a census done in Ireland. I will read out the breakdown of those who identified as a religion. Some 68% identified as Roman Catholic, 1.8% identified as Muslim and 14% identified as non-religious. Altogether there were 73% who identified themselves as of the Christian faith. Obviously that has changed over a number of decades. There have been numerous opinion polls in the last number of years that consistently show 75% of people support legislative change. If that is a cross-section of society, that would include people of the Christian faith. I am sure people of the Christian faith would support legislative change around assisted dying if 75% of public opinion shows support assisted dying or legislative change.

Ireland has made huge social strides in the last 25 years and the Catholic Church has been against each of those strides. The Catholic Church was against contraception. It is incredible really. It was against divorce, marriage equality and a woman's right to choose. In each of those strides, where there has been legislative change or a referendum, it has been on the wrong side of that history and evolution. Assisted dying is one of those issues to which people among the religious hierarchy are opposed. I understand and respect the witnesses' views but I believe those views should be separate from issues such as assisted dying because it is a very personal thing. Even if it is a personal thing, it still needs to be thrashed out in relation to legislative change. Given that public opinion clearly states that it would support legislative change around assisted dying, how come all the religious organisations are out of step with public opinion?