Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for coming here today. I feel a huge burden of responsibility as a member of this committee. I do not believe there is anything more profound than dealing with and talking about life and death. When we talk about consequences or unintended consequences, we must note that no matter what penalty is put in place, it will never compensate if somebody has been unduly influenced or coerced into taking a decision to end his or her life early.

I come to this with two ears and one mouth and intend to take full advantage of our witnesses over the nine months in coming to an opinion.

Having listened to all our colleagues in recent weeks, though, including people coming to this debate from different sides of the argument, I was struck by the fact that everybody is coming to this issue with a sense of empathy and compassion and a desire to do the right thing. The courts have said that we can legislate, with the necessary safeguards, but not that we must. There is an option here and these nine months are about teasing out whether it will be exercised.

We talked about the decriminalisation of suicide in 1993. The decision to decriminalise in that instance was made from a stigma perspective. We never really talk, though, about helping people to exercise their right to take their own lives. In fact, we have fundamental debates in the Dáil on ensuring that the right resources and supports are in place to ensure nobody feels this is the only option. I refer to people feeling life is so unbearable that they wish to end it. We must be cognisant of this point.

Ms Gibney, in her contribution concerning the previous Private Members' Bill brought forward, made a suggestion involving using reasonable medical judgment in situations where there is a high probability of death. In my opinion, this is very much objective. What average age do people live to now? Is there a reasonable medical judgment to be made that people who are three or four years beyond the average life expectancy, and have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, or other issues, have a high probability of dying? Yes, there is, I would say subjectively. People in this situation, though, may go on to live quite a normal life for some years. I have an issue, therefore, with wording like this. It is too expansive. I welcome hearing Ms Gibney's opinion on this point.

Additionally, do any of the witnesses have an idea of the number of people who travel annually from Ireland to countries where availing of assisted dying, assisted suicide or euthanasia is permitted? Do we have any idea of the number of people who avail of this possibility? I always listen carefully to what Senator Ruane says. I was struck by the valuable point she made in respect of the value we place on people's lives. Unfortunately, this is again very subjective. Some people place a value on lives that are contributing meaningfully to society, in respect of working and resources, while people then have another opinion in terms of placing a value on the lives of people who, because of whatever reason, are unable to contribute to society. These are some of my thoughts and I would welcome feedback on them.