Results 5,201-5,220 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Nobody can make the case that the circumstance, where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman arising from a risk of suicide, would never arise. Nobody can bring that argument home. Whether it is one in 1 million or whatever figure Deputy Mulherin had, I do not know what the likely outturn would be but nobody in this room or elsewhere can say it would never arise that...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Doctors have to do both. The doctors have a responsibility-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy is correct when he states that there is a higher threshold with regard to the assessment of suicidality in respect of the assessment of women in the circumstances we are discussing versus the norm. He must, however, examine Article 40.3.3° of Bunreacht na hÉireann which sets out in solemn and clear terms that the State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn, with...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: There are some very clear and fundamental issues which we must bear in mind and these are dealt with in the Constitution. We did not make them up.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: To start on the point the Minister finished on, he is absolutely correct. That the risk does not have to be immediate or inevitable is not embedded in the test that was set out by the Supreme Court. The test set out by the Supreme Court is very clear. I can say with confidence that the test is whether, as a matter of probability, there was a real and substantial risk to the life of the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Yes, but it is not part of the test. The Deputy made the point, which was quite wrong, that we are reducing or varying the test or something like that.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: That is not true. I want to address the other points. Deputy Shortall spoke about a concern, if I understand the point, that if a psychiatrist was asked to make a certification and declined to make a certification, would he or she then be in a position where they would have a concern that they might be subject to litigation in the future, having declined to make a certification. The...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: On a point of information-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: If I could help the Deputy-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: On Deputy Keaveney's point, I fully agree with the Minister's response. There is nothing in section 9 that triggers the Mental Health Act. While I understand the Deputy's point, I do not understand the point that may be being made outside the House that the interrelationship between section 9 and the Act gives rise to some question. It does not do so.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The issue of involuntary admission is addressed in the Mental Health Act 2001. It is the only law that applies in the case of any individual who is to be subject to involuntary admission. If the conditions or circumstances that are contemplated in the Mental Health Act 2001 apply, a person may well be sectioned. However, there is nothing in section 9 or anywhere else in the Bill that...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: As stated by the Minister, we will consider everything that is said.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I do not believe the Minister intended to give any indication of his intention to-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: We will consider what has been said.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I was gathering my thoughts about the Mental Health Act 2001.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: No. The key legal difference is as follows. The Oireachtas, in the Mental Health Act 2001, decided to protect people from being sued. In other words, the intention was to put a sort of protection around certain individuals in circumstances in which somebody was considering instituting proceedings against them. That is not what we are talking about in amendment No. 32 today. As the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I want to endorse absolutely what the Minister has just said. It captures the point very well. There is no doubt in my mind that Deputy Ó Caoláin's amendments are very well motivated. I do not say that in a condescending way. No citizens - politicians or otherwise - would regard delay in clinical practice as acceptable. It horrifies us all. In some cases, it has the most...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Deputy Creed also made some reasonable points.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The committee will draw up the form.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: It is totally false to claim that our position on this amendment arises out of that type of advice from officials. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív was a Minister for long enough to know exactly how the legislative process works. He is also perfectly aware that statutory instruments and orders made under legislation can only be made within the four corners of what is provided in the...