Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Durkan knows me well. Of course I will look into the issue.

In the case of the first person concerned, a payment totalling €2,500 has now been made towards the funeral bill of €5,505. In the case of the second person concerned, a payment totalling €3,000 towards the funeral bill of €6,845 has now been made by the Department. Considering the pressure families come under at a difficult time, those are quite considerable sums.

The cost of funerals is something that has concerned me for quite a long period and Deputies Eamonn Maloney and Robert Dowds have raised it consistently in the House. My concern is that people are in delicate circumstances when a close family member passes away. For a long time, I have been particularly concerned about the cost of funerals. When a person loses a loved one, a funeral is not something for which he or she would shop around. It is difficult, and often families have relationships with particular undertakers, but there is an onus, possibly on the State, to ensure that the cost of funerals is competitive, people are not overcharged and there is not profiteering. I am not suggesting that this happened in these cases, but both Deputy Durkan and I know many people who have come back to us stating that if they had known beforehand the cost of the funeral they might have gone elsewhere. There is possibly something we can do in that regard.

With regard to the two cases Deputy Durkan raised, for which he has already provided the contact details and arrangements, I will have officials in my Department look at them again.

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