Mr. Garret Ahern:

I will address the Deputy's concerns with regard to potential coercion and again, I am mindful of the fact that we are including overseas models and they may not necessarily be applicable to a set of circumstances we come up with here. The Belgian model requires somebody to have a terminal illness and a limited lifespan, perhaps less than six months, and to repeatedly request assisted dying. Being elderly, vulnerable or suffering from a disability are not terminal illnesses and, therefore, they could be excluded from this framework. If we take the instance of mental illness, which is a terrible debilitating affliction that affects many people in this country, someone may feel hopeless and lost and not feel that they can go on with their life now because of such a mental illness, and my heartfelt sympathies go out to all of those people who suffer in that way, but it does not apply that they will feel that way in six months’ time or a year's time. Therefore, we can introduce exclusions and safeguards to minimise as much as possible that coercive elements will not come into play in this regard. I hope that goes some way towards answering the Deputy's question.