Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would not rule anything out in this session. I want to engage with the Irish Kidney Association. Typically, we do not need to do that. Typically, the HSE is pretty good at public awareness campaigns. Let us consider all that went on with the Covid vaccines. That is not done on a statutory basis. There are a few layers to this. The HSE will roll out the programme. The Department needs to allocate a good chunk of funding. I also refer to the role of civil society. It will not just by the HSE. It will be bodies such as the Irish Kidney Association and other phenomenal patient representative groups, which will continue to play an important role. Also, regarding the change that it makes, I was invited to the organ donation week launch in the Mansion House recently and met some of the families involved, both those who had received organs in life-saving transplants, including a good friend of mine, and a family who lost their son, whose donations saved five people's lives here in Ireland. That kind of message is more powerful than anything the State could do. It gets the personal testimonies out from both sides about organ donation and organ recipients to say just how important this is.

One of the amendments relates to situations where consent is required, while consent is always required from the family, so that it can involve more than just the doctor. It can be the social worker, psychologist, counsellor or an appropriate person in the hospital. That is part of the awareness work too.