Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Apologies have been received from Senators Lynn Ruane, Annie Hoey and Mary Seery Kearney.

Parliamentary privilege is considered to apply to the utterances of members participating online in a committee meeting when their participation is from within the parliamentary precincts. There can be no assurances in relation to participation online from outside the parliamentary precincts. Members should be mindful of this when contributing.

Witnesses participating in this committee session from a jurisdiction outside of Ireland should note that their evidence may be subject to the law of that jurisdiction. This committee discusses dying, including suicide, and support information can be found on the committee's webpage.

Our agenda item today is engagement on the topic of assisted dying in Canada and is part of the module on assisted dying in the international context.

I warmly welcome Dr. Heidi Janz, Dr. Konia Trouton, Dr. Leonie Herx, Dr. Jocelyn Downie and Professor Trudo Lemmens. We are grateful to them for sharing their knowledge with the committee. Members will ask their questions after the witnesses have given their opening statements. I kindly ask our witnesses to keep their statements to the five minutes as agreed.