Mr. Mark Murphy:

The last time the public was shocked was in or around 2001 in relation to the Alder Hey and Bristol hospital cases in Britain, when 30,000 children's organs were found. However, we found organs were also being stored in Dublin. That did rock the public's view of organ donation and the donor card and was damaging. That is the reason for this Act 20 years later. The previous Act, the 1832 Human Anatomy Act, that we are rescinding here had an element of presumption of consent. Now, we are introducing a presumption of consent within this Bill, which I think is dangerous. As a consequence of the old Act, and the retention of children's organs in Dublin maternity hospitals and children's hospitals, we have this Bill some 19 years later.

The legislation was talked about for over a decade. Now, in the legislation, we are introducing a presumption of consent, which we have already found was dangerous and inappropriate. Here we are introducing it again but we are not actually because the wording is a presumption of consent but the practice is not so. We are just worried that the public will get the wrong view. Indeed, it is the confidence of the public that we want to retain and that is why we want the "Yes" and "No" bits included, which fixes the matter for us and restores the public's confidence in this process that we are doing today.