Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I raise the need for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to review the procedures governing the making of wills and the desirability of providing a national registration system for wills. I am of the opinion there is an urgent need for legislation to provide for a national registration system for wills. We are faced with a situation in which many people's last wills are not being honoured. Many make wills not knowing that these may sometimes not be executed correctly, if at all. It is a unique situation where a purchaser of this service has no after-sales service or comeback, as it were.

We have a responsibility to ensure citizens' wishes are honoured and given their proper and deserved legal recognition. One person deprived of what is rightfully his or hers is one too many. All wills must be registered to combat this problem. I envisage a registration of wills Bill being introduced this year. The central registration would be provided for by the General Register Office, which is located in Roscommon town. All births, deaths and marriages are legally required to be registered and it is only natural, therefore, that the central registration of wills would be situated in the same location.

I propose that solicitors must lodge all wills with the national register within 21 days of the wills being executed. In the course of my research I have discovered a Council of Europe convention for the establishment for a scheme of registration of wills dating back to 1972. I understand this convention was never ratified by the State although countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain have done so. The convention's main aim was the provision of a registration scheme enabling a testator to register his or her will in order to reduce the risk of the will remaining unknown, or being found belatedly, and to facilitate the discovery of the will's existence after the death of the testator. This was on account of the situation wherein a growing number of persons made their wills in places that were not their homes or even in foreign countries.

As most member states do not require wills to be deposited with a court of law, notary or other authority and there is no central register, heirs are often unaware of the existence and whereabouts of a last will and testament. We must establish a registration scheme for wills, which would make it possible to ascertain whether a deceased person has made a will and, if so, where it can be found. In 2004, some 5,400 wills were probated in Ireland but more than 28,000 people died. This significant shortfall demonstrates my point. Many people do not make wills. Many make private wills but these are normally held with their papers and documents.

There is no requirement of the 3,000 plus solicitors registered in this country who execute and make these wills to provide lists that would be held in a central bona fide registry such as the General Register Office in Roscommon town. At present, a person makes a will with a solicitor, the solicitor records it in his or her book of wills and the document is held in the legal firm's safe deposit box. The Law Society Gazette has advertised in the past few weeks, as it does in every publication, requests for the whereabouts of wills that are mislaid, missing or cannot be found. Many people who would be entitled to inheritances from these wills have been deprived. There is a case to be made for this move and if the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is not in a position or is not prepared to introduce a Bill, I will introduce a Bill under Private Members' business as I feel strongly about this matter.