Oireachtas

Dáil votes by 76 to 53 to accept assisted dying report after Coalition parties allow free vote

Motion says that House will takes note of document which made 38 recommendations as some TDs oppose legislation

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny said: 'I think it’s important that the Dáil gets to vote on the subject.' Photograph: iStock
People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny said: 'I think it’s important that the Dáil gets to vote on the subject.' Photograph: iStock
Marie O'Halloran
Wed Oct 23 2024 - 21:31

The Dáil has voted by to 76 to 53 to accept the assisted dying report after the three Coalition parties allowed a free or conscience vote when it came before the House late on Wednesday night.

A number of Government TDs opposed the legislation but support from Sinn Féin, People Before Profit – which has championed the issue – as well as Labour and the Social Democrats meant the report was accepted.

Former minister Simon Coveney opposed while Government Ministers Peter Burke and Norma Foley were also among those who rejected the document.

The Final Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying is based on sittings over six months, hearing from over 70 witnesses. The final report, issued in March with 38 recommendations, favours legislating for assisted dying in certain restricted circumstances.

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A Fine Gael spokesman said that “as is the case for issues of conscience Fine Gael TDs will have a free vote on this. This is a report of a committee as opposed to a vote on legislation.”

The party echoes the decision of Fianna Fáil, whose leader Micheál Martin said TDs would have a free vote on “issues to do with life”, or issues of conscience.

The Green Party is in favour of accepting the report and asked its TDs to support it.

The text of the motion is “That Dáil Éireann shall take note of the Report of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying entitled Final Report of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, copies of which were laid before Dáil Éireann on 21st March, 2024″.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane, a member of the committee said, “the vote is just an endorsement of the report”, and that it would “fall to the next government to decide on what to do next”.

Mr Cullinane added that “in government and in our health manifesto that we’re launching next week, [we are] committed to very extensive pre-legislative scrutiny of this issue because it is going to take time. It is complex. There are, rightly so, a lot of safeguards and curtailments identified in the report.

“It will be a challenge to go from a committee report into a legal framework that is robust and can ensure that all of the safeguards in relation to coercion, assisted decision-making and all of those issues.”

[ Assisted dying: ‘If I cannot consent to my own death, who owns my life?’ ]

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who championed the issue, said: “I think it’s important that the Dáil gets to vote on the subject.”

He said they were voting on a motion.

“It’s an indicative vote so it doesn’t really have any weight in terms of changing legislation or even changing government policy.”

A majority of the 14 members of the committee voted in favour, with a dissenting report from Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy, Independent Michael Healy-Rae, who chaired the committee, and Independent Senator Rónán Mullen.

Earlier the Dáil, voted by 78 to 52 in favour of the controversial Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill which was amended in the Seanad after a backbench revolt following its passage through the Dáil. TDs accepted the amendments to remove hate speech provisions but include hate crime.

Labour and the Social Democrats voted with the Coalition parties to accept the legislation.

Ms McEntee said it was “regrettable” that “consensus was lost” on the matter but “the amended Bill will deliver on the programme for government commitments to introduce hate crime legislation for the first time in Ireland”.

Labour’s Brendan Howlin expressed concern that the1989 Act and this Bill “will sit side by side on the statute books” but with “two different sets of people impacted by the protections”.

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said the changes left a “Frankenstein” of a Bill that should be “parked”. Independent Mattie McGrath said it was a “shambles” and Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín called it a “fiasco”.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times