Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for giving me the opportunity. I thank the Members for their flexibility in allowing me to say a few words. I was at a very sad funeral down the country today of a young woman of 46 who died of cancer. She had two small children. I am just getting an opportunity to come back here today.

As somebody who sat through 96% or 97% of the committee hearings, I want to put on record that I think the committee did much good work. We worked well together and were respectful of one another. We thoroughly examined this proposal. Having sone so much good work from an ethical, legal, constitutional and medical perspective, there was not a unanimous decision at the end of the meeting. While there was a majority report which captured, obviously, the majority, some of us on the committee could personally see the exceptional circumstances in which a person might consider the natural decision of ending his or her own life because the future is so bleak. There are those very minor circumstances where it might be a good thing to do. On balance, having listened to people and experts, particularly experts in palliative care who warned how vulnerable people could be exploited and having looked at the international examples of where assisted suicide or assisted dying was introduced, unfortunately, while it tended to be introduced in very restrictive circumstances, over time, however, those restrictive circumstances were expanded and expanded. I would have a huge concern if we were to go down that channel, although we would introduce it with the best will in the world. Much time went into this in terms of how we can bring in as many protections and restrictions to avoid it being expanded or avoid vulnerable people being exploited and that we would not be able to do that. When we come to the final few weeks or months or whatever it may be in this Dáil, and while the work of that committee has concluded, it will fall to the new Dáil to look at what is a very serious topic when we are talking about life and death. It will form the responsibility of the people who will be elected to the next Dáil to determine where we go in this regard. As somebody who sat through the process for 96% or 97% of all hearings, I would advocate for the exercise of extreme caution. Sometimes, when seeking to make things easier, what we are trying to achieve is not always what we achieve. We need to broach this with caution and look to where it has been introduced already.

See this speech in context