Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 21 November 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying
Access to Palliative Care and Social Supports: Discussion
Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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I echo colleagues in thanking all of the witnesses for coming in to share their expertise. I will start with Ms Maguire. We heard from her and from the late Brendan Clarke. Both testimonies were moving from different perspectives. In the context of asking Ms Maguire about her experience, there is no need to name any people. She is talking about her family's experience of being completely left out of the picture in this case, where a cherished loved one had mental health issues and availed of suicide abroad with the help of Exit International. Ms Maguire has brought out today that this is never just an individual choice. People around are also affected. If I were to put it to her and her colleagues, some would say that if it had been available in Ireland in certain circumstances the family might have been kept informed. That is a fair point. However, even if they had been kept informed, there would still have been the hurt we have heard of from so many other families where suicide occurs.