SINN FÉIN’S DAVID CULLINANE has said legislating for assisted dying is not going to be easy, ahead of the publication of recommendations on the matter later today. 

At 2.30pm today, the Oireachtas Assisted Dying Committee will publish its recommendations following months of work examining whether to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws in Ireland. 

Speaking to The Journal, Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane, who sits on the Committee, said the report will advise “caution and carefulness in how we approach this”. 

He said the Committee will recommend that it be legislated for in “very restricted circumstances”. 

However, two of the Committee’s members, Senator Rónán Mullen and Michael Healy-Rae TD, are also due to present dissenting minority recommendations at 4pm after the Committee’s report is published. Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy has also agreed the alternative recommendations.

Healy-Rae, who was chair of the Committee, was last night accused of undermining its work with his involvement in publishing the minority report. 

Most of the Committee’s recommendations have already been made public, including that legislation be introduced to allow for assisted dying in limited circumstances. 

The Committee will recommend that a person with an incurable, irreversible, advanced and progressive illness that will cause death within 6 to 12 months should be eligible to be assessed for assisted dying.

The 12-month limit will apply to people with a neurodegenerative disease, illness or condition.

The Committee also states that the illness or disease must be causing suffering to the person that cannot be relieved in a manner that the person finds tolerable.

“It’s accepted that this would be a very complicated piece of legislation, there will obviously have to be a very robust pre-legislative scrutiny process, to deal with a whole range of issues. This is a really sensitive issue, it’s a difficult issue, it’s not going to be easy to legislate for,” Cullinane said. 

The Waterford TD said he believes this legislation will take some time to implement. 

When asked if he expects it to be put in place within the lifetime of this Government (i.e. before next March at the very latest), Cullinane said it is “probably doubtful”. 

“What will be clear from the report is that while it recommends that the state legislates, this will be a process that will have to be very carefully gone through. And all the appropriate safeguards and protections and measures which need to be in place will obviously have to be incorporated into the legislation. So I would imagine that that process will take some time, because the state, likely we want to get it right.”

Safeguards

Cullinane said the difficulty with the recommended safeguards and eligibility criteria will be actually legislating for them.

“People will want this to be done very carefully and done right so that we can have legislation in place that yes, provides for an option for assisted dying, but in very restricted, and in very limited circumstances as set out in the report,” Cullinane said.

“I think that caution is something that the vast majority of people will accept,” he added.

The Sinn Féin TD added that there is a “very clear view” that palliative care should be completely separate from assisted dying in terms of funding streams and also in how people view palliative care. 

Cullinane stressed that palliative care is totally separate. 

He added that Ireland has a long way to go in terms of advancing and investing in palliative care services. 

Overall he said today’s report is “very balanced” and takes into account all of the testimony that came from the Committee witnesses and the “very powerful evidence on both sides of the argument”.

Minority report

Mullen and Healy-Rae will argue in their own dissenting report that “the case against any change is overwhelming” and that the existing ban on assisted dying be maintained.

Instead, they will recommend that there should be “funding for high-quality palliative care services”, “a study on ableism in Irish society” and “much-increased mental health supports to identify depression problem”.