THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying will begin public deliberations on 13 June, following its first meeting last week after months of delays.

The cross-party panel of TDs and senators will run for 9 months before producing a report with recommendations in March of next year.

The committee will examine the legal and ethical implications in a number of modules during the timeframe of the committee.

It will also ascertain the viability of how the system of assisted dying would operate in Ireland.

The first private meeting of the special committee was originally set for October 2022, but was delayed, while it was suggested in last week’s meeting that the committee not meet in public until September to avoid interruption from the summer recess.

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who tabled the Dying with Dignity Bill in 2021 which led to the committee’s formation, welcomed the new development.

“There has been enormous delays in setting the committee up. It should have been set up a long time ago in my opinion.”

“However we have now a set date when the committee will meet in public and the public will get a chance to hear the complexities of the debate and where assisted dying has been legislated for in other countries. I believe as a country we are ready for that debate.

Yesterday Independent Senator Rónán Mullen, who sits on the committee, stated that he had clarified with the committee chairperson, Michael Healy Rae, that the committee was free to recommend against the introduction of assisted dying.

Mullen has said that he wrote to Healy Rae last month stating that he believed the committee’s terms of reference appeared to suggest that it could only make recommendations in favour of introducing an assisted dying regime.

“However, it is clear from this evening’s meeting of the Committee that the majority of members do not think that we can only go one way on this issue,” the senator said yesterday.

“Nor did people think that it was the intention of the Dáil and Seanad to fetter us in this way or to present us with a pre-ordained direction of travel.”

“I welcome the clarification at this evening’s meeting that there is not such a pre-determined outcome intended.”

Mullen also stated that he believed the committee should use the phrase ‘Assisted Dying / Assisted Suicide’ in reference to its work, noting that this approach was also taken by the UK House of Commons.

Kenny clashed with Mullen’s opinion on the vocabulary around assisted dying, stating that a change to the official language used by the committee would only further delay its work.