Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in. I, too, pay tribute to the families who have in the most awful of circumstances given the gift of life to complete strangers. I pay tribute to the late Senator Feargal Quinn who championed this case long before it was popular, and long before people were aware of the consequences of not having a functioning organ donation system, which we currently do not have because this legislation is the first legislation on organ donation in the history of the State that is Irish legislation. The only legislation we have was brought in by the European Union, which the head of the Spanish transplant authority said was the worst implementation of the organ donation directive in the European Union. Therefore, we took our one chance but did not do it well for all sorts of reasons that I shall not go into today.

We are now faced with an opportunity to create a better system. We are way behind where Spain was because that country started in the 1980s and even Croatia, which has not been mentioned today. The issue of presumed consent has not been discussed. We had two days of hearings about presumed consent. Everyone walked out the door and said that presumed consent was the way to go and then the view changed to one of presumed consent in addition to which one must ask the families. The latter scared people because people thought Ireland was bringing in the Austrian system that has presumed consent. The option did not work anywhere. Spain brought it in, it did not work and they eventually figured out what works. Information works as do systems that are properly resourced, as Professor Egan and Mr. Conroy have pointed out. One can have presumed consent. One can also have required request, which is in America. I am surprised the option is not in the legislation but it needs to be inserted. The option has been introduced in Wisconsin and other jurisdictions. Professor Egan might answer my next questions. What hospitals have failed to provide organ donors in the last ten years? Has he a hospital in mind?