Ms Paula O'Reilly:

At the Irish Hospice Foundation, we work towards the best end-of-life and bereavement care for all. If the committee were to make a recommendation to legislate differently or for a change in legislation, the Irish Hospice Foundation would continue to advocate for the best end-of-life care. It would be the individual’s choice as to whether they decide on assisted dying. From our perspective, our role would still be to ensure that everybody who is end of life and who is bereaved would be afforded with the right supports at the right time. Our position would not change.

In respect of the Deputy’s follow-on question on palliative care and that approach, that would not be for us to answer because we are not directly involved. It is a question for our colleagues here, the individual hospitals and how that would impact them.