Results 16,501-16,520 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is you, Minister.

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: We do not pass legislation on the basis that the current Minister will be the Minister forever.

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: We have to pass laws on the basis that different people will hold this position in the future. That is why I welcome the decision to place this report before the Houses of the Oireachtas. I would prefer if the Minister were obliged, as Deputy Ó Caoláin has suggested, to ensure the report is brought to the attention of the relevant committee. I would say it should be "referred" to...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I thank the Minister of State for his reply on amendment No. 65. As Members will be aware, the question was raised by somebody far more eminent in law than myself and it is important that we tease the issue out. Everybody knows my objection to section 9. However, I accept that the way in which the Bill has been constructed means that this amendment might not be a solution. With regard to...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: People like to have somebody with them, perhaps to articulate or ask questions on their behalf. It is also essential that the woman herself be present. I support the call for the Minister, on Report Stage, to change the wording to "the woman and-or a person acting on her behalf".

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I move amendment No. 65: In page 13, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:“(2) An advocate for the preservation of the life of the unborn nominated by the Attorney General shall be entitled to be heard at the review committee and shall be entitled to review all the documents and information put before the review committee but shall not be entitled to cross examine the...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I should not have said "been refused" and I accept that. I should have said "not received the required certificate". In other words, two medical practitioners under section 7, for example, have jointly certified in good faith. One could seek a review if one did not get the certificate. It is not that it is refused but that one does not get the certificate. I am anxious to correct what I...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: Are we discussing amendments Nos. 47 and 78 together?

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I move amendment No 48: In page 11, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following: "(3) The three medical practitioners who make a certification shall forthwith make an application to the Executive for a review of the relevant decision and the said section 9 shall have no effect or standing until and unless it is upheld by a review committee under section 13(3).".

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Minister mentioned that 150 psychiatrists would be eligible to make an assessment under the Bill. This is important. We keep referring to the X case. Twenty years ago, on the word of one clinical psychologist, which was never contested in court-----

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I have a question. One hundred and twenty consultant psychiatrists signed a letter that said effectively that abortion as a treatment for-----

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: Before the question on the section and the amendment to remove the section, effectively, are put, I must ask a question. A significant number of professional psychiatrists have clearly stated-----

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: -----written on the record-----

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: -----that there is no medical evidence for what is proposed. I thank the Chairman for allowing me to make my point.

Other Questions: Special Educational Needs Services Provision (3 Jul 2013)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 24. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the implications for the education budget in 2014 of the additional resource teachers announced on 25 June 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32280/13]

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: I already spoke on Second Stage in some detail on my objection to this section. The diagnosis, especially the circumstances outlined by Deputy Naughten, poses huge difficulties. There seems to be major evidence from psychiatrists that they do not believe that abortion is a treatment for suicide and there seems to be some evidence that any possible saving of life would be more than offset...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: With regard to the whole issue and the philosophy behind it and when we get into the practical issues of the risk to the unborn, let us take the period between 24 and 37 weeks which is 13 weeks or a third of the time that a pregnancy lasts, give or take. My understanding is that during that period unnecessarily delivering the child early creates a high risk of disability. I have been told,...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: Yes, on the amendment. Effectively, the Minister's amendment covers all of this issue. The problems of prematurity exist until approximately 37 weeks so here is the issue. We know that the diagnosis of suicidality is hit and miss. In fact, there is a very low rate of successful diagnosis of whether a person would commit suicide or not.

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is what the psychiatrists have said. The issue is, with the Bill, a large number of adults could likely present to a future committee. They will say that they were perfectly healthy babies but because of the construction of the Bill they are seriously disabled as they were prematurely born due to an assessment of risk. We know from many psychiatrists that this is something that they...

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

Éamon Ó Cuív: In the Minister's reply to me, he referred to not knowing where to access the service. My understanding is that cases would have been taken by the HSE, which one would expect would know where the service was available. I accept that people in care are statistically more likely to be vulnerable. On the other hand, since they are in the top class care of the HSE or another institution, one...