Mr. Joe Brolly:

We in the North have done a great deal of work. I had privileged access to the First and Deputy First Ministers as well as the health Minister. We worked with all of the parties. I say "we", but I am a part-timer. There is unanimity in the North on the soft opt-out. All of the stakeholders, patient groups and clinical leads are in favour of it. I will revert to this issue.

All of the parties agreed that it was important that no misinformation be peddled and that the message be given clearly to the public, namely, the proposed system is based on a family's written and informed consent.

Regarding the US rates, America runs a market model. Everything is about money. We are a neighbourly society. Society must decide how it wants to approach the issue of organ donation.

In that regard, there has been a subtle but very effective change throughout Europe. It is not a coincidence that all of the leading countries operate this model. The York Group, which conducted the research for the UK's organ donation task force, and its document, Make Life your Legacy, has been circulated to members - which I assure them they can trust - and all other recognised studies incorporated into the UK donation task force report and, in turn, into the government programme, concluded that when all other variables are taken into account soft opt-out has a significant beneficial affect on organ donation rates.

My second point is an important one. I have circulated members with the Department of Health's circular to us and the comments by the head of the UK donation task force, Ms Elizabeth Buggins. The new organ donation infrastructure in the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, has been in place now for five years. Scotland is now considering moving to soft opt-out because the rates there have remained relatively static. Wales is in the process of finalising its public consultation on the issue. There is unanimity in Northern Ireland on this. There is a reason for this. After five years, the level has increased from an atrocious 13 to 14 donors per million to an acceptable 20 to 21 per million. This has given us stability but nothing more. After five years of flat out publicity to which a huge amount of resources was devoted - members will see in the documents circulated what has been devoted to this area - only 28% of people are on the organ donor register. The rate of family refusal in Belgium hovers between 2% and 5%. The rate of refusal in Spain is the same. The reason there is not a strong living donor programme in Spain is they do not need it.