A somewhat disingenuous row has broken out among members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, with Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell taking it upon himself to accuse chair Michael Healy-Rae of undermining the report it’s due to issue, going as far as to say the Kerry deputy’s position is “untenable”.
This came as the committee was set to publish its report today recommending that ‘assisted suicide’ be legislated for in Ireland. Mr Healy-Rae, along with Independent Senator Rónán Mullen and Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy, is known to have dissented from the committee’s majority and is to join Senator Mullen in presenting their minority recommendations this afternoon.
Mr Healy-Rae’s opposition to the recommendation drew a strong response from Mr Farrell, with RTÉ reporting that in an email to Deputy Healy-Rae, he accused him of “seeking to undermine the credibility of the very report you shepherded through the difficult process we all ventured into, together”.
In light of this, you might be left wondering whether it was an unwritten responsibility of the chair to leave his opinion at the door, or to keep his silence on what is an incredibly controversial topic. Is a vow of silence incumbent upon those who’d “shepherd” an Oireachtas committee through its meetings over a contentious topic?
No, Deputy Farrell, it is not.
As Senator Mullen is said to have pointed out, Mr Healy-Rae was “scrupulously fair” in his handling of the committee meetings. During the course of the nine months the committee was in operation, it heard from a wide variety of voices on the topic of assisted suicide and euthanasia, and its effects upon society. As the committee heard from those who came before it, there’s no reason to believe that the chair’s conduct was anything other than respectful and facilitating of debate, as some of the fierier clashes that took off on social media testify to.
Assisted suicide is a controversial topic, no doubt, but one that it is absolutely reasonable to hesitate over, if not outright reject. That Mr Healy-Rae has concerns shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone aware of the diverse voices that are wont to exist in a democracy.
After all, a significant number of doctors addressing the committee voiced their concerns and expressed the opposition to assisted suicide that many in their profession hold. If it’s reasonable for these qualified professionals to think so, surely it’s not out of bounds for an elected representative to think so too?
Mr Farrell said that while Deputy Troy and Senator Mullen are “perfectly entitled to express their personal views”, for Mr Healy-Rae as cathaoirleach, “to present the report without accepting the report, is untenable”.
Since when was it required of the chair to undergo internal reorganisation such that a proposition they find unacceptable, in this case recommending legislating for assisted suicide in Ireland, is mandatorily endorsed as part of the package? Again, it isn’t.
If silence or endorsement of a controversial committee recommendation are the only valid responses a chair can make, does this not put an obstacle in the way of acting as chair for anyone who has personal doubts or objections to the decision a committee might arrive at?
The majority of Mr Healy-Rae’s committee colleagues seem to understand this, with People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny – who introduced the assisted dying bill in the first place – saying there was “never going to be consensus on this issue,” but that what’s important “is the findings of the report and work of the committee over the past year”.
The chair can’t have undermined proceedings too severely, then.
I personally am more concerned about attempts to bring about the image of consensus where, clearly, there isn’t any. The last thing Ireland needs is to shut the door on what little opposition there is to the current liberalising tendency that exists in the present political sphere.