Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Apologies have been received from Senators Mullen and Hoey. Senator Keogan is here instead of Senator Mullen; she is very welcome.

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 they are contributing. This committee discusses dying, including suicide. Support information can be found on the committee's webpage.

Our agenda item is engagement on the topic of safeguarding medical professionals. I warmly welcome, from the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, Dr. Deirdre Collins, chairperson, Dr. Diarmuid

Quinlan, medical director, and Mr. Fintan Foy, chief executive officer; from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, Ms Karen McGowan, president, Dr. Edward Mathews, deputy general secretary, and Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha; Dr. Mary Neal, reader in law at the University of Strathclyde; and Professor Harvey Chochinov, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and senior scientist at CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute to the meeting. We are very grateful to them for sharing their knowledge, expertise and the wisdom of their experience with us.

The question-and-answer format of this meeting is that members will ask questions after all the witnesses have given their opening statements. A member can ask an individual witness a question or address a question more generally to all the witnesses. I ask the witnesses to please keep their opening statements to five minutes; they will see clocks in the room.

I invite Dr. Collins to give her opening statement on behalf of the Irish College of General Practitioners.