James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Amendment No. 1 deals with the commencement date for the Bill. The absence of a specific commencement date is due to the fact that operational issues will need to be addressed before the Bill can be commenced. For example, section 11 will require the HSE to establish a panel of medical practitioners for the formal medical review provisions. This process will entail contacting the relevant bodies, seeking and receiving relevant nominations and appointing the identified medical practitioners. In addition, section 12 will require the HSE to put in place whatever administrative facilities may be necessary to enable the review committee drawn from the review panel to perform its functions. I assure members this is not a delaying tactic. It is necessary to ensure all the requirements of the Bill are in place so that it can be implemented in its entirety when commenced. For this reason, I ask the Deputy to withdraw his amendment.