Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate what the Deputy has said and the motivation behind the amendment. We had a good discussion on this on an earlier Stage. I was of a mind to have another look at it to see whether it could be facilitated. At the end of the day the very practical advice I was given was that it would be quite impossible to get a person's doctor to confirm to another medical person of the board that the client was not well. If the client did not want that to be done the doctor would not be able to do it. It could happen that a person would be on a life support system in a hospital and clearly unable to continue with his functions. A person could have a brain tumour or be in a vegetative state following a stroke and everybody would know it. Somebody could say the person was in that state and, obviously, he or she would not be medically fit to carry on. If the Minister of the day was put in a position where he or she had to go to the person's physician to confirm that, the person may not be in a position to allow his or her physician to do it. If for one reason or another the person does not want to leave the board and is not quite in the state referred to, all he or she has to say to his or her physician is that he or she is not authorising him to disclose any information about him or her. In that event it would be impossible to remove the person from the board. On balance, while I tried to facilitate this amendment, gave it careful consideration and took advice on it, it is not practical to put it into the legislation. For that reason I ask the Deputy to withdraw it.

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