Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for the amendments. I agree with both of them on the principle that, as regards the paired arrangements, these have to be voluntary and unpaid. The legislation prohibits coercion of any living donor and does not allow for payment or for any non-financial award to be made for the donation of organs or tissues and cells.

Section 12 outlines the principles for organ, tissue and cell donation. These include that donation must be voluntary and unpaid. It actually goes further by making it an offence to seek or offer financial or non-financial rewards by advertising the need for or the availability of organs or tissues and cells. Specifically, section 12(1) provides: "Subject to subsection (3), any donation of an organ or tissues and cells from a deceased or living donor shall be voluntary and unpaid and any financial compensation or other like reward given in respect of a donation of an organ or tissues and cells shall render any consent provided null and void." The section allows for a living donor to receive expenses for loss of income and costs connected to the donation and it sets out the conditions for this. The Minister for Health has the authority to make regulations in respect of compensation under the scheme.

Further to this, sections 21(1)(c), 22(1)(c) and 23(1)(c) provide that a condition in relation to the donation of organs, tissues or cells by living adults and the donation of organs by non-directed altruistic donors is that "subject to section 12and any regulations made under that section, the donor has not and will not receive any financial compensation or other non-financial inducements for donating". As such, I hope colleagues will agree that the legislation is robust and clear with regard to the principles of donation and the conditions around donation. While I agree with the intent of the amendments, they are robustly covered in the Bill.

In respect of Deputy Shortall's amendments Nos. 10 and 15, I examined this matter in detail to make sure that it was covered in the Bill. The clear advice I have from the officials is that the Bill captures circumstances where there are paired organ donations and, therefore, multiple recipients. Paired organ donations are an important part of the living donor programme in Ireland and there will be no change to this on foot of the Bill. The current provisions of the legislation enable the continuation of paired donation arrangements.

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