More than 30% of psychiatrists disagree with the abortion proposal
Nearly one in three of the country’s psychiatrists who treat adults is concerned at the government’s proposal to introduce legislation which would allow a pregnant and suicidal have an abortion as treatment.
The 113 psychiatrists have signed a statement saying that legislation, which would allow for abortion as a treatment for threat of suicide, has no basis in medical evidence.
Four leading psychiatrists who carried out the survey were at Leinster House today to meet with TDs and Senators to discuss its findings- sparking yet another potential crisis for the controversial legislation.
There are around 350 psychiatrists in the country and 302 of the doctors were contacted. 14 of the doctors disagreed with the statement.
Their opposition poses a major difficulty for the implementation of the proposed legislation which will rely on psychiatrists to be involved in assessing a woman who is pregnant and seeking an abortion on the grounds of suicide risk.
The government is already facing separate objections to its proposals to have two panels of doctors assess a woman in this situation – the first three would meet her while the second would be consulted for their opinion before a final decision is made.
The four consultants at Leinster House today were Dr Martin Mahon, Connolly Hospital, Dr Bernie McCabe, Navan Hospital, Dr Richelle Kirrane, Connolly Hospitall and Prof Patricia Casey of the Mater Hospital.
Dr McCabe said: “I am not surprised that so many of our colleagues agree that the proposed legislation is flawed. As members of the medical profession, we have a duty to our patients to adopt best practice and an evidence-based approach to everything we do.
“The fact is that there is no evidence that abortion is a treatment for suicidality in pregnancy and may in fact be harmful to women. The Government must take this into account and reconsider its proposals.”
She declined to say what the doctors would do if they are asked to take part in the assessment of a woman after legislation is passed.
She said: “In total, 302 letters were sent to consultant psychiatrists there was over a 40pc response. Doctors were given the option to sign their names or reply anonymously. Almost 90pc of respondents agreed with the statement.
MEANWHILE:
Taoiseach Kenny says ‘no new rights’ will be contained in abortion law
KENNY RULES OUT HOLDING ANOTHER REFERENDUM ON ABORTION
Taoiseach Enda Kenny who said today law is not being changed on abortion. He said it was being clarified to deal strictly with the Constitution and with the X case and ‘will do so without bringing any new rights’.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said “no new rights” will be put in place when the Government legislates for limited abortion.
Speaking in Dundalk, Mr Kenny said the clarification that would be introduced would not change the law and would confirm existing rights ensuring that the lives of the mother and the unborn were given the equal status they had under the Constitution.
“The law is not being changed on abortion. The law is being codified and the law when clarified will deal strictly with the Constitution…will deal with the X case and will do so without bringing any new rights here,” he said.
Tensions on abortion law escalate at Fine Gael meeting. Rotunda master says abortion plan is ‘totally impractical’
Politicians are still not willing to take the hard decisions on abortion
“No woman in Ireland is entitled to by choice have an abortion unless there is a real and substantial risk to her life as distinct from her health…the law is not being changed. No new rights are being inserted here.”
Mr Kenny described drafts of legislation as “meaningless”, when asked if Minister for Health James Reilly had misled people about the content of the proposed law.
“In the preparation of any piece of legislation there are numerous drafts that are always prepared…all of these are meaningless until the Heads of the Bill are actually presented to Government by the sponsoring Minister and approved by Cabinet,” he said.
He also ruled out a new referendum. “I do not propose to have another referendum.”
A formal Government decision had been taken in December to deal with the ABC case.
Asked about dissent within his party about the Government’s stance, he said everyone would be entitled to have their “full say”.
Speaking after a meeting of the group of Ministers tasked with finding a solution to the stalemate on the draft abortion legislation this morning, Minister of State for Health Alex White said good progress had been made.
He said the legislation that will be brought in “will be quite restrictive in the context of the X case judgment”.
“It will still mean that we have a very restrictive regime in relation to regards the termination of a pregnancy in Ireland.”
“We want to put safeguards into that legislation but we don’t want to put in any kind of excessive or inordinate to the exercise by a woman of what is a constitutional right,” he said.
The ministerial group, which includes the Taoiseach, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Minister for Health James Reilly, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald, was convened for the first time on Tuesday after Cabinet discussions ended in disagreement over the detail of the proposed new law.
Mr White said the Government hoped to bring the Heads of the Bill to Cabinet next Tuesday and was hoping to introduce the legislation before the Dáil summer recess.
This morning consultant psychiatrists briefed Oireachtas members on their concerns about the proposed legislation.
One of the psychiatrists, Dr Bernie McCabe, said there is no medical evidence that would suggest an abortion is a treatment for suicide.
“As members of the medical profession, we have a duty to our patients to adopt best practice and an evidence-based approach to everything we do. The fact is that there is no evidence that abortion is a treatment for suicidality in pregnancy and may in fact be harmful to the woman,” she said.
“The Government must take this into account and reconsider its proposals.”
Meanwhile, some third of over 300 consultant psychiatrists contacted for a survey have supported a statement which outlines concerns with the Government’s proposals to legislate for abortion in limited circumstances.
Some 113 psychiatrists signed a statement rejecting the basis of abortion being a treatment for suicidal ideation in a woman.
The statement said: “We believe that legislation that includes a proposal that an abortion should form part of the treatment for suicidal ideation has no basis in the medical evidence available.”
The statement has also contended that it is inappropriate for the medical profession to be involved in the process.
The initiative came from four Consultant psychiatrists, Jackie Montwill, Martin Mahon, Bernie McCabe and Richelle Kirrane who wrote to all of their psychiatrist colleagues to ascertain if they supported the statement and wished to sign it. Some 14 of their colleagues opposed the statement. The four were among a group of psychiatrists opposed to the legislation who briefed parliamentarians in Leinster House this morning.
Dr Mc Cabe said: “I am not surprised that so many of our colleagues agree that the proposed legislation is flawed.
“As members of the medical profession, we have a duty to our patients to adopt best practice and an evidence-based approach to everything we do. The fact is that there is no evidence that abortion is a treatment for suicidality in pregnancy and may in fact be harmful to women.
Irish Revenue Commissioners claws back €359m from ‘cash business’ audits
The Irish Revenue Commissioners revealed yesterday that it took in €359m as a result of audits on companies.
Most of those audits were focused on so-called cash businesses. The construction sector was the leader in that regard, with 1,306 audits yielding about €39.3m, while landlord or rental properties brought in €42m from just 733 audits.
Chairwoman Josephine Feehily added the Revenue was “very active” in investigating tax evasion through offshore accounts. The “Offshore Project” yielded €18m, and more may follow, she said.
“Our investigations have led to the uncovering of two types of cash extraction schemes with a total tax at risk of €198.5m.”
Enquiries are ongoing in 84 companies across the two schemes at the moment.
The Revenue chairwoman warned that “aggressive” tax avoidance schemes posed a “serious threat to the Exchequer and can undermine the entire tax system by negatively influencing taxpayer behaviour”.
By the end of last year, the Revenue was investigating schemes worth a possible €110m in capital gains tax.
Revenue increased its net take last year even as it warned that staff cuts were making it harder than ever for the department to do its job.
Publishing its annual report for 2012, the Revenue said net tax and duty receipts increased 7.1pc to €36.7bn last year. That was the second increase in returns in a row – the first time that has happened since 2007.
The net debt available for collection – which excludes debts that are being disputed or are under insolvency proceedings – fell 10pc to €1.2bn.
The improvements in collection came even as the commissioners saw staff levels fall by 230 during the year to 5,732.
Ms Feehily made clear the fall in staff levels had hurt the department’s ability to enforce tax collection but added that automation of several processes had allowed her team to still be efficient despite this.
Ms Feehily said her team, which focuses on the shadow economy such as tobacco and alcohol, last year drilled down in particular on fuel laundering.
That strategy was a “considerable success”, she said.
Overall, the Revenue seized more than 1.1 million litres of laundered fuel during the year.
Illegal tobacco consumption “is being contained” – with 95.6 million cigarettes seized last year.
Irish property prices down for March, CSO figures show
Nationally residential property prices are were 5.8% lower than in March 2012
Taken monthly, residential property prices fell by 0.5% in the month of March. This compares with a decrease of 1.5% recorded in February.
The CSO says that overall house prices in Dublin are now 55% lower than at their highest level in early 2007. Apartments in Dublin are 62% lower than they were in March 2007.
Commenting on today’s figures, Davy’s chief economist Conal MacCoill said they suggest that the housing market may have cooled in early 2013 following the expiration of mortgage interest relief.
He said he believes the improvement in affordability will underpin house prices. ”But constrained mortgage lending, and increased supply of repossessed homes, will limit the pace of the recovery,” he added.
Evidence of British countryside’s big cat found
REMAINS OF ‘DEVON BEAST’ REDISCOVERED
THE BIG CAT THAT SUPPOSEDLY ROAMS THE DEVON COUNTRYSIDE IN ENGLAND HAS GAINED ALMOST A MYTHICAL STATUS. NOW, RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED EVIDENCE THAT A CREATURE REALLY DID WANDER THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE IN THE EARLY 1900S.
The large cat that supposedly roams the British countryside in England has gained almost a mythical status. It’s on par with the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot and New York City’s sewer alligators. Yet now, researchers have discovered evidence that a large cat really has been wandering the Devon countryside–at least in the early 1900s.
The evidence itself came in the form of a mounted Canadian lynx that was rediscovered in a museum’s underground storeroom. It was actually first mislabeled as a Eurasian lynx, which once roamed the British countryside and became extinct around the 7th century. Extensive study of the specimen revealed that it was the non-native cousin of the creature. More than twice the size of a domestic cat, the Canadian lynx was shot by a landowner in the Devon countryside in the early 1900s after it killed two dogs.
The Canadian lynx is actually a denizen of North America. It lives in four geographically distinct areas in the United States, including the Northeast, the Great Lakes States, the northern Rocky Mountains and the southern Rocky Mountains. It’s generally a solitary animal, hunting and travelling alone; it prefers various forest types, including both young and old. Currently, only about 1,000 lynx exist in the lower 48 states.
So how did a lynx from North America journey across the ocean to the British countryside? It turns out that there was an increasing fashion for exotic-and potentially dangerous-pets at the time. It’s possible that the Canadian lynx actually escaped from its enclosure before it began terrorizing the countryside. After examining the specimen’s bones, researchers were actually able to conclude that the lynx had been kept in captivity long enough to develop severe tooth loss and plaque.
“This Edwardian feral lynx provides concrete evidence that although rare, exotic felids have occasionally been part of the British fauna for more than a century,” said Ross Barnett, lead researcher, in a news release. “The animal remains are significant in representing the first historic big cat from Britain.”
Previously, many believed that wild cats entered the British countryside following the introduction of the 1976 Wild Animals Act. Yet this latest find reveals that wild cats were introduced far earlier, though there’s no evidence to suggest that they have actually been able to breed in the wild. Currently, Britain is without any native big cats.
“There have been enough sightings of exotic big cats which substantially pre-date 1976 to cast doubt on the idea that one piece of legislation made in 1976 explains all releases of these animals in the UK,” said co-author Darren Naish in a news release. “It seems more likely that escapes and releases have occurred throughout history, and that this continual presence of aliens explains the ‘British big cat’ phenomenon.”
Postmortems show dolphins got entangled in fishery gear off Mayo
Ministers to examine ways of minimising risks
A pair of dolphins in Killiney Bay. Common dolphins are plentiful in Irish waters but because they feed on fish shoals very close to boats, they are at risk of being accidentally caught.
Postmortems on several dolphins found dead along the Mayo coast in January indicate they had become entangled in fishery gear.
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan expressed concern at the findings and said he had agreed a meeting between his officials and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to see how risks to dolphins could be minimised.
Thirteen common dolphins were found dead along the Mayo coast at Achill Island over one week in January. Most were washed up on Keel Strand, Dookinella and Keem Bay.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group had expressed concern at the unusually high number of dolphins washed up in the same area and said it was unprecedented. TheDepartment of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht said the situation was considered sufficiently unusual to warrant further investigation. It commissioned postmortem examinations on five of the animals and a special veterinarian team carried out the work at the Department of Agriculture’s regional veterinary laboratory in Athlone.
The examinations found evidence consistent with entanglement in fishing gear apparent in each animal and all postmortem findings suggested the dolphins were accidentally caught up by trawl-type fishery gear.
Common dolphins are plentiful in Irish waters but because they feed on fish shoals very close to boats, they are at risk of being accidentally caught.
Mr Deenihan pointed out that dolphins were subject to strict protection under national and international legislation. “I am concerned by any killing of these species, even where accidental,” he said.
“A meeting has been agreed between my officials and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to examine what further actions may be taken to minimise the risks to dolphins,” he said
Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney said he shared Mr Deenihan’s concern about the high number of dolphin deaths. He said many Irish and European fleets operated in an area that was intensely fished and it was not possible to say which of the fleets were involved in the incident.
“The results of these postmortems certainly remind us of the need to further our efforts to reduce incidental by-catch to the lowest possible level across all EU and third country fleets fishing in waters around Ireland,” he said.
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