Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their presentations. There is legislation coming up in the Seanad on a referendum Bill, so I will have to leave during the session and I want to apologise in advance.

Regarding the contributions, I am interested in chatting with Dr. Allcroft. Much conversation over the last while has been about how important and valuable palliative care is, but there seems to be some sort of competitive nature in the discussion when we talk about assisted dying, as if we are proposing or may propose that it is an alternative or better option, or that somehow they need to be taken as being in opposition to each other rather than being different types of end-of-life care. I am quite interested in that. Dr. Allcroft has had 20 years in palliative care and he has experience with assisted dying and motor neurone disease. I will ask all the questions, if Dr. Allcroft wants to note them, then I will let him respond to them all together.

Will Dr. Allcroft say a few more words on the statement that palliative care and assisted dying are not alternatives, where it must be one or the other, and discuss that from his own experience? He said he has been involved in co-ordinating and consulting for patients requesting access. What does co-ordination and consultation look like? It seems that all of the people involved in that consultation process are in different settings. Does he visit those settings? Are they all settings that are open to voluntary assisted dying happening? Obviously, if someone is at home, that is a different scenario compared with if someone is in a hospital bed or a care home. What does that look like in general?

Another question relates to motor neurone disease. Some dialogue in the committee over the last while is about how one begins to create the criteria. Will Dr. Allcroft give us a little insight on the criteria for the process where he is? How do those criteria for voluntary assisted dying work for somebody with motor neurone disease? Does somebody with motor neurone disease need more assistance at certain levels of the disease? How does that work when people require assisted dying and have a disease that will maybe hinder their ability to directly take the measures themselves? Will he give us insight on those patients and how that works? I think that is enough for now.