Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Leader of the House to have a discussion on the passing of legislation. I am having efforts to have the Registration of Wills Bill 2005, which I brought forward here as a Private Members' Bill and which was passed by this House, heard in the other House to have it passed into law but I am encountering major resistance from the Law Society, which is doing its utmost to frustrate the passage of this Bill. It is frustrating the will of this House. The Law Society, which has had many difficulties with some of its members recently, is doing its utmost to ensure there would not be a registration of wills Bill passed by the Oireachtas. The society does not wish to be associated with or work through this system. It prefers to have a situation where all the wills books are held by individual companies. Even in those companies which have been taken over by the Law Society, some of the books have been mislaid and people have been deprived of their rightful inheritance. I demand the Law Society to represent, and solicitors throughout the country should ensure it represents, the good decent hard-working solicitors of this country who face enormous challenges and whose liability insurance has increased to €24,000 per member.

Not wishing to anticipate any other Senator's contribution to the House, the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings has been signed by Ireland but has not been ratified. Another Senator may have other views on that issue.