Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I knew Michael Kivlehan and his wife, and Sean and Sally Rowlette. I remember being in the hospital that night with Sean Rowlette as his young wife, a healthy woman, was in a hospital bed on a life support machine, with him having to make the decision as to when they would turn off the machine. Honestly, it is unbelievable to think that happened. It does happen, unfortunately, and it will happen again.

Afterwards, what I could not believe was the difficulty the Kivlehan and Rowlette families had and the trauma they went through to try to ensure inquests were held. It took a long time to ensure they were held. Those families had to go through a lot of unnecessary hardship to get what should be a natural right. After that, Sean Rowlette mentioned to me that Deputy Clare Daly had put forward a coroners Bill and I want to acknowledge that the Deputy pushed this Bill. Sean Rowlette asked me to support the Bill and that is the reason I am here tonight. I will support the Bill in any way I can and I am delighted the Fianna Fáil party is supporting the Bill.

Like previous speakers, I hope the Bill will pass through the Dáil quickly and that it will be dealt with long before Christmas. I would not like to see any family go through what I have witnessed two families go through, which was wrong and unfair. The only right way forward is to make sure this Bill passes as quickly as possible.

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