David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a quick point following on from that. It goes back to the point I was making earlier about having maybe an opt-in and opt-out process. It is implied we are all opting in if we have not specifically opted out. As the Minister has said, there is a hierarchy of family members who will then have to be contacted to give consent. That is the check and balance, I suppose, to avoid potential clashes in families. These are sensitive issues, as we know, and even within that hierarchy there may be others who have different opinions. The Minister raised the point earlier in response to me that we may have to strike a balance here when we are looking at what the Government is proposing versus what the Irish Kidney Association is saying. If a person does not opt in, that person dies and the family says they did not opt in, I can see that issue. The converse of that is that if a person does opt in, then under this proposed system there is not any real advantage, if you think about it. There should be an advantage. Certainly, I think it would make it easier. I know we will tease it out in the technical briefing, but the more I hear of what is being proposed and the more I think about the issue, I would be of the view that perhaps an opt-in and opt-out system might be a better way to go about it, but we will come back to the issue at the technical briefing.