Results 16,521-16,540 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: This is the nub of the Bill and in five or ten years time when people will thank us for having taken our time. Will the Minister clarify the issue to which he has just alluded? What will be the situation where a person does not have a mental illness and the issue of alternative treatment does not arise? I understand refusing treatment for something other than a mental illness will raise...

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 other issue which causes me great concern - the issue Deputy Billy Timmins has brought forward with regard to numbers is new to me - is how many pregnant young women-----

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: This is relevant. We have had six cases. How many pregnant young women in total are in care? It seems that if this is extended to the total population, it is a very high number and a very frequent occurrence. Will the Minister address this issue because statistically it seems that very significant numbers will be involved.

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 it is born.

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: It must be the pregnancy rather than the child.

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 are discussing the amendments and the Minister indicated he may have amendments on Report Stage. I regret those amendments are not being put on Committee Stage as the Bill has been a long time in preparation. Will the Minister indicate to us the nature of the amendments he is considering so we might have an input into the thought process? We can still work on Report Stage but now we are...

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: It is not my intention at this stage to press or pursue amendments Nos. 35, 48 and 53. However, I will be re-entering them on Report Stage. They seek to strengthen section 9. It is my position that I am opposed to section 9.

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 am explaining my view on the amendment.

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: For that reason I will speak in opposition to the section but I wish to make the point at this stage that the issues raised by Deputies Naughten and Mulherin are germane to the whole issue of section 9 and to concerns that many people have in respect of the section. I will not be pursuing those three related amendments at this time. However, I will revisit the matter on Report Stage...

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: Is the intention of sections 7 and 8 to confirm and clarify current best medical practice as is the situation under Article 40.3.3° in respect of physical risk? Do they seek just to clarify rather than to change it?

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's explanations on consulting general practitioners are reasonable. There is an obligation to act expeditiously in all of these issues. I accept these provisions have been drafted professionally to take all of this into account. Where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother which can only be averted by the termination of the pregnancy, have there been...

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: All of us are concerned at what happened in the case of Savita Halappanavar. However, we must examine the reports into the case and ensure procedures are put in place so that it would not happen again. Obviously, there was a real and substantial risk to her life and the intervention did not happen in time. Will the Minister accept maternal care has been traditionally of a high standard in...

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 want to speak in favour of what has been argued.  I have always been of the view that in urgent situations nothing should delay a decision taken in good faith and based on reasonable opinion to save the life of the mother.  In regard to sections 7 and 8 and the physical threat to the mother's life, while no decision is absolute, a clearly identified threat can be evaluated.  ...

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 committee would be informed what information was proposed in the statutory instrument and that would then delimit what would be in the form. When I was a Minister, I came to the conclusion that draft statutory instruments should be brought into the House for debate. I put that into operation, although it was not a statutory obligation at the time, but I regretted that I did not made it...

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: Section 19, which deals with certification, specifies that a certification "shall be made in the prescribed form and manner". That seems fine. However, it also stipulates that the certification must "contain the prescribed information". In other words, the question of what information is included on the form will be decided by the Minister. This sub-committee would be very interested in...

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: -----while at the same time there is a refusal to put into law a requirement that the relevant Oireachtas committees examine statutory instruments.

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 point I am making is that the Minister's very dismissive view is particularly disappointing when he could so easily accept the amendment. I realise, of course, that he is getting advice from his officials that it would mean more work for them and that he should instead keep life simple - that legislative scrutiny is not something we really need to take seriously when it comes 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: Nobody made that claim.

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 wish to respond to what the Minister of State said.

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: It will take whatever time it takes. I am very well aware, as a former Minister, of the limitations of what one can do under a statutory amendment. I am absolutely aware of that. However, taking section 19, for example-----