Results 24,781-24,800 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I wanted to ask a question about the Mellet and Whelan cases and the extent to which medical advice and objective counselling, which were clear and unambiguous, were available to them that might have been to their advantage. My last point is a legal issue. There could come about a situation whereby the right to life of an unborn child may come into focus. For instance, the European...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Sometimes it is important to qualify what the purpose of the question is, for everyone's sake.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I thank our witnesses for attending and giving us of their time. Professor Binchy said that the 1983 amendment of the Constitution gave equal right to life to the unborn and the mother. That was the theory at the time, but it was not what happened in actual practice. We could quote instances, but I do not want to go into them at the moment. The problem arose when a decision had to be made...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: That is the first question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: There will be more as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Professor Binchy accepts that a pregnant woman may have a medical condition that affects her health in a way that can lead to a threat to her life.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Does he accept that a condition affecting the health of a pregnant woman needs to be dealt with? I refer, for example, to a woman whose previous medical history shows she has a tendency to have high blood pressure. What happens in a case where extending the pregnancy without any condition could cause the woman to contract sepsis, for example?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: It is. Professor Binchy mentioned previously that this was well covered in the eighth amendment. Does he accept that there has been a change? If so, is the change acceptable to him?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Yes. That is not my question. Does Professor Binchy accept that the 2013 legislation clarified what was meant by "the equal right to life"?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Yes. I will try to get all the information I can.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I will do my best. The first ground provided for in the 2013 Act relates to medical conditions and the second ground relates to mental conditions which can ultimately lead to a serious health condition and, consequently, a threat to the life of the mother. My presumption is that Professor Binchy conditionally accepts what the 2013 Act says.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I have one more question for Professor Binchy and I have a question for Ms Zampas as well. It will be a quick one. Does Professor Binchy believe the lives of any pregnant women were lost during the period in which the balance on which "the equal right to life" was judged was not too clearly defined? Does he accept that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: -----some women who were pregnant may have lost their lives due to-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I wonder why they died so. However, I will put my last question to Ms Zampas.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Does Ms Zampas accept the necessity for adequate medical and psychological counselling before and after abortion, in the event of abortion?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Adult Safeguarding: Discussion (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the witnesses for coming before us and giving a very enlightened appraisal of the situation. Two things occurred to me. One was the scale of notifications, which Mr. Healy referred to in his opening statement. In 2016, 8,000 notifications of safeguarding concerns were submitted to the safeguarding teams. To what extent were they investigated adequately and satisfactorily? Was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Adult Safeguarding: Discussion (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: Of the 8,000 reported, were they speedily investigated and comprehensively reported upon afterwards to the satisfaction of those who made the report in the first instance?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Adult Safeguarding: Discussion (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: If I may make a quick comment on a matter I did not refer to earlier, decongregation is the flavour of the era in which we live but I would warn that the alternatives are expensive and require supervision equal to that which exists in institutions. As it stands, there is evidence to suggest that those who were institutionalised in the past may well be sleeping work or on the homeless list at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Adult Safeguarding: Discussion (4 Oct 2017)

Bernard Durkan: I will. I agree with most everything else but I want to mention to Mr. Taylor that I have been down this road and have examined the barracks and the conditions therein in the past. I have also looked at the alternatives and the conditions therein, or thereout as the case may be now. It is a sad reflection on our society that we have displaced people to move them, theoretically, to a better...