Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. Yesterday I was among the five persons appointed to a special committee of Seanad Éireann which will join of the special committee of the Dáil to form the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, pursuant to motions passed in the Dáil and the Seanad. I first thank the Committee of Selection for supporting my application or request to be included on this committee. I am sure, together with the other four Members of the Seanad, that I will do my best to scrutinise the issues from my own particular perspective certainly, as I know they will. This will be with a close eye to be seen to do justice in this situation.

I put on record at this point that I have concerns about the terming of the committee as the joint committee on assisted dying. What is proposed here by some in these Houses is a change in the law that will make certain people very vulnerable to feeling that they do not belong in our society any more. We spend a great deal of time, effort and resources, rightly, in discouraging suicide. For me, this is a joint committee looking at the issue of assisted suicide and that is how I intend to term it. I believe that the committee that has been set up should seek to be known as the joint committee on assisted dying or assisted suicide because we must not have one term leading the way, as it were, or shaping public opinion one way or the other.

The other thing is that the wording of the main task of the joint committee suggests that we are there to “consider and make recommendations for legislative and/or policy change in relation to a statutory right to assist a person to end their life”. On one reading, that is telling us what we have to do, which is to come up with recommendations for policy change. Are we entitled to recommend against policy change? I believe this has been very badly worded and is an issue upon which I have written to the chairperson-designate of the committee, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae, to ask him to get a legal opinion to determine, first of all, whether we can change our title to becoming the joint committee on assisted dying or assisted suicide and, second, to verify that we in fact do have a free hand as we set about our exploration of the issues, hearing evidence, and to recommend for or against a policy or legislative change in this area. It is vital, if there is to be public confidence, that our hands are not seen to be tied right from the get-go. I thank the Cathaoirleach.

Before making my main contribution, I formally second the proposal from Senator Ward.

We need to have a real debate about how we are going to deal with our vulnerable adults and how they can access the services they have. We have had a very significant debate in the past number of years about school transportation. Rightly or wrongly, there have been changes there. There is a lack of actual transportation to get vulnerable adults to their five-day a week services whether it is the Cope Foundation or CoAction. This is a very significant issue for us in society. They have access to transportation but when they reach the age of 18 they do not and are literally thrown off the bus. They need to find an avenue where they can have a continuous ability to get to these services and attend them on a five-day week scenario.

What is happening is that at present, 11 students in Beara will be obliged to travel on Irish Rural Link transportation in an unsupervised way from the next few weeks onwards, because there will be no other way in the future that they will be able to reach their services. I have been contacted by parents from Kilbrittain who go to Dunmanway every day, and this will be the case for the rest of their lives. They will need to access their services and take their vulnerable adult, who is now 18, to these services for the next 20 to 30 years, for as long as they are available. We have no policy as to how we are going to close this loop and I believe we must have a significant debate on this issue. It is not on the radar and is not being spoken about.

As a result, families are tied and have no ability to have a life. They do so much for society and we need to help them. We should have a debate about prioritising transportation for vulnerable adults in order that they can live independent lives.