Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to say a few words. First, I thank colleagues across the Dáil and Seanad for their support with this Bill. It has been a very constructive and collaborative process and we have an important Bill. This is an important day for everyone in the country who is waiting for an organ transplant.

Today, 601 people and families are waiting on an organ transplant and there will be many thousands into the future. Today is all about them. One of the important things we are doing with this Bill is moving our country from an opt-in organ donation service to an opt-out service. That means that there will be more viable organs available, more lives will be saved and more families will be supported. The aim is to make organ donation the norm in Ireland where a person passes away and where a donation is possible.

This legislation has been sought for a long time. It goes back nearly 15 years. There are many groups I wish to acknowledge within the Irish donor network. First and foremost are all the donor families for everything they have done. I also acknowledge the Irish Kidney Association, whose representatives are here with us this evening and who have been front and centre on this legislation the whole way through, as well as the Irish Heart and Lung Transplant Association; Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, the Alpha-1 Foundation; the liver transport plant unit in St. Vincent’s University Hospital; hospital transplant co-ordinators, Children’s Liver Disease Ireland, Heart Children Ireland and the eye and bone banks. I acknowledge all of them and the strong support they have provided.

Last year, we had 265 transplants. We aim to increase that this year and in the years to come. One of the measures I have announced today to coincide with the passing of this Bill is an additional €1.6 million in annual funding to further improve and support our national organ donation services.

The Bill includes very important reforms of post-mortem practice and anatomical examination. We have had too many situations in Ireland where the remains, particularly of babies, have not been handled in an appropriate way, where families were not consulted and where family’s wishes were not respected. This Bill puts the family front and centre in everything to do with the handling of remains. It seeks their permission for everything and ensures that anything that is done is in the interests of the families. It makes it impossible - certainly it makes it against the law - for anyone to do some of the things we have seen previously where disposal was not appropriate and families were not consulted. That is important. The aim here is to ensure that anything that is done in what can be an extraordinarily difficult and sensitive time is done with regard to the family’s wishes and with due regard to dignity, bodily integrity and the privacy of the deceased as well.

This is a good day, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Bill will now wing its way to the President. Hopefully we will get it back shortly and we will begin to enact these measures. We will continue to fund and to ensure that all of those people out here around our country have the best and earliest possible chance of a life-saving organ donation.

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