Mr. Garret Ahern:

The Deputy should bear in mind that my wife's trip to Belgium came after a very substantial overdose in February. My wife's planning of the trip to Belgium was done entirely by her, although she was in great emotional distress, to avoid any legal consequences that might have befallen me.

My wife took an overdose one evening. I went upstairs to check on her. I kissed her goodnight and I went back downstairs to sleep on the couch because she was in so much pain she could not bear to have me lying there next to her. It caused her physical pain. She would lie awake at night, crying in her suffering, crying facing the end of her life.

She just wanted to be alone in that isolation. There was no prognosis of recovery. It was terminal. It was in the final stages. How do I know it was terminal and in the final stages? She could not walk. She could barely eat. She could barely drink. She was losing her hair. She had no energy. One does not get better from this. This is heading in only one trajectory. That suicide attempt was unsuccessful. I am glad of that. I am glad I had the remaining weeks with my wife to support her and to reassure her of my unswerving love for and duty to her. My wife could travel to Belgium because she was a Belgian citizen. It made life so much easier. She had a Belgian address. She had a Belgian GP with whom she could reconnect. For people who do not have that facility available to them, how many of them take their lives by suicide and are successful in the attempt? I say "successful", but the consequences of suicide are rarely as we intend. They can be quite unpleasant.