Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I welcome this initiative. I thought it was a good idea when Senator Leyden first raised it in the House. However, he went further and took the trouble to draft a Bill, which is very welcome. The Minister appeared to put this matter on the long finger when he said much work must be done to modernise the entire process and that consultation would be required on the Bill. However, relatively simply legislation such as what has been introduced by Senator Leyden is what is required. No doubt it will be examined in detail on Committee Stage but I hope the legislation is not put on the long finger by the Government.

Another issue that came to mind when I saw Senator Leyden's proposal is the need to establish a register of people who have guardianship of children. I refer to unmarried fathers. If the father has an agreement with the mother of the child that he is a guardian, they can swear an affidavit to that effect. However, there is nowhere to register that evidence of guardianship. That is another system of registration that must be put in place. Other states have a registration system for proof of guardianship and so forth. This issue should be examined but that is another day's work.

The proposed system is voluntary. It must be made clear in the legislation that it will not be a system of validation of the will and will not affect wills that are not registered. Many people will still choose not to register their will and that is their entitlement. It would be hard to put in place a system that compels registration of wills as it would give rise to a number of problems.

I am not sure if the Fine Gael spokesman realised that whatever is in this register will not be definitive in terms of determining whether somebody has a will. As I understand it, one will not be able to examine the content of the will. That would not be appropriate anyway. The amount of detail provided for in the Bill is probably sufficient. What is required is something that will assist people in finding out if a relative who has died left a will and where it can be found. It can often be difficult to locate wills. I am sure that people have sometimes secured a grant of administration on the basis of there not being a will where, in fact, there was a will but nobody could find it or wanted to find it.

There are other issues that must be examined. An issue emerged concerning individuals with several wills, all of which are registered. The law stipulates that the later will is the one that takes effect. It must be taken into account that an individual may register a will and then change it without re-registering it. The registry, therefore, would not in any way be definitive. An individual is not obliged to register a revocation of a will and a system where the registry is definitive cannot be introduced. People must be advised and educated about this in some way.

Many Members argue people must be encouraged to make wills. As a solicitor I agree with this and often encourage people to do so. If an individual makes a will, there is control over what happens to his or her estate when he or she dies. However, it is not so bad if an individual dies without a will. People often believe that by not having a will, fate dictates what happens to their estate. A Fine Gael Senator pointed out that when a married person who has children dies, leaving no will, two thirds of the estate goes to the spouse with one third to the children. The Succession Act introduced by Fianna Fáil was good legislation.