Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I will be brief. I wish to speak in support of Deputy Twomey and to congratulate him on introducing the Bill. I also thank the Minister for his comments and commend Deputy Keating on his contribution. I agree with much of what he said.

I was fortunate enough to study for an arts degree in UCD. My friends always asked me whether it was worth anything. As part of my philosophy course we did an elective on biomedical ethics. In the course of it we studied ethical questions relating to the State, society and medicine, in so far as advanced medical health care was concerned. We looked at everything from in vitro fertilisation, IVF, all the way up to end of life issues. We went from first principles and looked at the technology. It was incredibly informative and much of the reading I did at the time and the learning I experienced has informed much of my approach to these types of issues. I did not think at the time that I would have the opportunity to consider them as a legislator a few years on.

I support Deputy Twomey's Bill and much that it aims to achieve. The idea of empowering the patient and care, as referred to by Deputy Keating, at the end of one's life is incredibly important as well as how we view and discuss it. There is perhaps more to do. Deputy Twomey was gracious enough to admit that improvements or changes could be made to the Bill. One change which has been highlighted already has been brought to the attention of Members by Amnesty International regarding the advance directives that apply to mental health. I was given a briefing by Amnesty International and I read through it. I will refer to one issue that caught my eye. It relates to the Law Reform Commission's attendance before the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality to discuss capacity legislation. Ms Patricia Rickard-Clarke of the Law Reform Commission stated at the time that a person cannot refuse basic care but can refuse artificial life sustaining treatment. That is what people were trying to ascertain with the capacity legislation. She went on to say that, ideally, advance care directives should be a part of the capacity legislation. According to Amnesty International, if that advice were taken on board then section 6(8)(c) of Deputy Twomey's Bill would have to be amended or deleted to allow for the use of such advance directives for people with mental health difficulties. I ask Deputy Twomey to consider that as we take the Bill forward to Committee Stage.

That is all I wish to say on the Bill but I wish to speak briefly about the Friday sitting. I will bore people because every time we sit on a Friday I talk about the sitting and the reforms that can be made. Usually I speak about how the Friday sitting could be improved but in fact there is much from the Friday sitting that we could take to improve other days that we sit. For example, for any of us to speak in the Chamber today we had to be present to listen to the debate. If we wanted to partake we had to indicate that to the Ceann Comhairle, listen to other people's views and then give our own. That does not happen in the normal course of debate. In addition, the speaking time was allocated by the Ceann Comhairle fairly and evenly among speakers. It was not just block-booked by the parties whereby one person would have 20 minutes and another only two. It is a much fairer way of doing business. Usually when I talk about reform in the Chamber I say that if the Chief Whip is listening he might consider adopting some of the reforms but at this stage I know he is not. Therefore, perhaps it might be incumbent on some of the newer Members in the House to come up with our own reforms to Standing Orders to ensure that we can improve the business of the House as we see that it needs to be improved because we are bringing fresh eyes to the Chamber in this new Dáil.

To return to Deputy Twomey's Bill, I congratulate him on it. He has my support. I look forward to following the Bill through Committee Stage and to participating in greater detail if I can at that time. I again thank the Minister for his remarks.

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