Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome this legislation, and as I indicated on Second Stage, I will fully support it. It can only bring huge improvements and we all hope for that, and a very significant increase in the number of organs donated and lives saved as a result. I welcome the fact the Minister said his officials will meet the Irish Kidney Association. I support the proposal to have a technical briefing for members of the committee where we might be able to tease out the six key amendments proposed by the Irish Kidney Association and the implications of those with a view, it is hoped, to having agreed amendments on Report Stage. I would very much welcome that approach by the Minister if we could do that as we have done previously in other Bills. The first amendment proposed by the Irish Kidney Association is a very important one regarding data and Deputy Hourigan referred to this already. It is particularly important because there are a number of organisations that are organ procurement organisations and then there are the various centres where transplants are carried out. The somewhat disjointed nature of the health service means data are not relayed to the centre automatically. For that reason it is very important to have an annual audit to look at all aspects of organ donation and to keep a record and keep tabs on what is actually happening and what the numbers are like relating to the various organs and so on and the parts of the country, etc. That would be very good.

I am proposing another amendment related to that and my concern is that I may not be in the room when that comes up because I have to be in the Chamber for another debate. Related to the whole issue of data is ensuring we have adequate resources and infrastructure. It is very important that there is an annual report on the adequacy of infrastructure and resources, because if what we all hope for comes to pass, there will then be a need for a significant increase both in the facilities and infrastructure for facilitating organ transplants and in the necessary staff resources. That is very important and I hope the Minister will accept that proposal.

I will leave it at that. I hope the Minister will approach this in a collegiate way, that we all get agreement at the end of this process to take the advice of those people who are experts who have been working in this field for such a long period, and that we can move forward on that basis. I thank the Minister.