Mr. Joe Brolly:

I thank the committee and the Chairman for inviting us here today. I am a part-timer but the celebrity surrounding this failed transplant has captured people's imaginations.

We have worked closely with the main stakeholders, North and South, and our question was "How can we help?". It quickly became clear to us that the way to help was to work towards the putting in place in the South of proper infrastructure for organ donation and to move towards the system operated by the leading European donor rate countries.

It has been a huge adventure for me and I see beside me, and I cannot say how ecstatic I am to see her, Ms Noreen O'Halloran, whom I met at an event for the Mercy Hospital in Cork earlier this year. At that stage, she was so ill I thought things might not work out for her. I sent her a text about six weeks ago to say I was thinking of her and she texted back to say not to worry because she was on her way to the hospital for a transplant. Five weeks ago she received a kidney from the family of a deceased donor in very difficult circumstances, as they always are. The transformation is extraordinary. This is the amazing Noreen O'Halloran today, and she is a full supporter of the Government's proposed legislation for soft opt-out. She has her own website for patients, which she will talk about. The fact she is here today is a symbol that there is nothing to fear from this because family consent is at the heart of the proposal.

If members would be good enough to look at the document that has been circulated, from the makelifeyourlegacy.com website, "Opt for Life!", we hope that a one-stop shop can be worked out with people like Professor Jim Egan and Dave Hickey, and with Phyllis Cunningham, who is the doyenne, the mother of organ donation in this society, who works tirelessly often with little help and few resources, along with her team in Beaumont Hospital. The point of our involvement is to ensure the organ donation system is fit for purpose. There is no reason we should be lagging behind the main European countries.

This is very easily solved and it makes perfect economic sense.

Briefly, I want to tell the committee about the position in Northern Ireland. One of the documents that I have circulated to the committee is from the Department of Health and Social Services with whom we have been working closely in the North. Over five years, in the North, by putting in place the infrastructure that Professor Egan recommended in his paper which is one of the appendices in the document the committee has, we have achieved an 81% increase. That is coming from a very low base in Northern Ireland five years ago of approximately 13 or 14 donors per million of the population - we are now at 22 per million.

One of the appendices in the document is drafted by Dr. Paul Glover, who is the national director in the North for organ donation and transplantation. The five main parties, all of the patient associations in the North and all of the main stake holders are unanimously in favour of a move to soft opt-out for the following reason. Even with a good infrastructure, we have reached a ceiling in the North and we realise now that the way to move to the next level is to move to soft opt-out.

Briefly, I will explain the proposal. I appreciate that most of the members are in tune with what is going on. The reason I started this is that after I came out of the transplant and I went on the radio talking about how people must become donors, I received a call from one of the McNicholl girls, a mountainy woman from Dungiven which is close to me. She said I was wasting my time and that we should do what is done in Belgium, where everybody is a donor unless they do not want to be and one's family still has the final say. She told me that everybody is a donor in Belgium and it is merely a normal part of the dying process.

This proposal, what the Minister is proposing, will make organ donation the norm in society. If one thinks of it logically for a moment, the question at present is, "Should I decide to become a donor?" Apathy is a big problem in that regard - we only have 27% or 28% of the people involved. Under the new system, the question will be, "Is there a reason that I should not be a donor?" That will more properly accord with the overwhelming view in society that organ donation is good. Who does not want to save seven lives after he or she is dead?

I do not want to go through all the nitty-gritty, but the committee will see the basics of the proposals and all the statistics set out. A phrase is often used about this - I have been using social media and I am aware that Ms O'Halloran used it too. The question that keeps coming back from people is, "Why have we not done this already? It is a no-brainer."

I commend the proposal to the committee. The committee will spend time reading the document. We have a limited amount of time here and I will pass over to my good friend.