Dying with Dignity Bill 2020: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2020-10-01
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Alan Farrell (FG), Dublin Fingal

I commend Deputy Gino Kenny on bringing this Bill before the House. I appreciate the comments of Members so far and the Minister's response. A decision on whether to change the law and on how best this can be done if there is a decision to change it, cannot and should not be rushed. I am glad the Minister referred to the significant societal changes that have happened in the past and that were finalised in this House. They were not instigated here, but in kitchens, living rooms and coffee shops around the country. The journey this House and its Members went on with those profound societal changes, such as marriage equality and the repeal of the eighth amendment, might not have suited everybody, but the majority of people supported them and those decisions were finalised in this House.
Deputy Gino Kenny referred to the previous Oireachtas committee. I served on the committees of the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Dáileanna, and I can say with certainty that the work of all-party Oireachtas special committees on profound moral and societal issues was deserving of the careful and methodical deliberation on the part of Members of the House. This Bill raises profound emotive questions of morality and ethics. I accept the position the Deputy has adopted regarding his wish genuinely to assist people in what can only be described as a tragic and painful situation. In that vein, he said he accepted the bona fides of the Government parties in proposing a counter motion. I suggest that the Deputy ask the Department of Justice and Equality, perhaps through a parliamentary question, to speculate on how long it would take the Parliamentary Counsel in that Department and in the Department of Health to take a Bill from Second Stage through to the Fifth Stage. I will confer with the Minister later, but I believe that nine months is probably conservative. I say that as a former member of the justice committees of the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Dáileanna.
As the Minister said, there are questions about certain parts of the Bill which could be problematic. For that reason as well, further consideration should be given to it. I listened to "Drivetime" on a podcast recently while I was driving home. I listened to the member of the public the Deputy mentioned, whose name is Bernadette. I was aware of this prior to that as I had heard from a few correspondents about it, but not many. I must say that this has the potential to be another one of those journeys we have all been on in the last number of years because it is a profoundly personal question that is currently not answered by the law. It is prohibited by the law. However, Bernadette's story of trying to assist a friend and being arrested at the door of a travel agent for doing so resonated with me. I was left with time to think as I drove.
Something as profound as this should not be rushed. It will require all of us to listen carefully to experts, who we will not have access to in the same way as we will with an all-party committee holding hearings such as those that took place in the past. Perhaps some will change their views, in either direction, but perhaps a majority of members will decide that this is something they will support and the Bill may progress further. There is no reason that it will take the full 12 months for the committee to be established and report, albeit there are difficulties with meeting for more than two hours and so forth. I am sure there are ways such a committee can be constructed to expedite its element of the work.
I finish as I started, by commending the Deputy on bringing the Bill forward.
It is something we should consider carefully . That consideration can really only take place in the forum we have used in the past. It would be worthy of all Members to take the time to consider the countermotion and the sentiments expressed by the Minister for Justice and Equality before they make their decision to either stop this from proceeding further or to attempt to adopt a Bill which, I believe. will not be passed by the House.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-10-01