Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is organ donation awareness week and the life-saving need for organ donation cannot be stressed strongly enough. Organ donation and transplants were significantly reduced worldwide due to the pandemic and Ireland recorded one the most significant fall-offs in donors. Part of the reason is that the clinical staff were redeployed to help with the influx of Covid patients. Lung transplantation was the worst impacted, followed by heart and liver transplants. Kidney transplants from both living and deceased donors also fell. Lives that could have been saved were lost.

The Minister for Health has spoken in this House about switching consent for organ donation from the current opt-in system to an opt-out system. This means that people would have to indicate they do not wish to become donors following their deaths. Otherwise, if suitable, their organs could be harvested. The key factor in implementing such a system would be having trained organ donation staff in every intensive care unit, ICU. In addition, the organ donation card is outdated and needs to be reviewed and revamped.

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