Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this directive is to ensure standards of quality and safety of human organs intended for transplantation. I attended the fleadh in Derry last week and I congratulate Senator Ó Murchú in that regard.

At the fleadh dinner I was sitting beside Mr. Joe Brolly, who as Members may know donated one of his kidneys. He is a living donor. As we were in the Maiden City, we both agreed that Senator Mark Daly was talking through his derrière because this is a technical directive to ensure the quality and safety of human organs intended for transplantation. Should the directive be annulled, which it will not be, we will have no objective quality and safety standards. We could continue to take organs from abroad but other countries may not be able to accept what we have to offer. Let us be very careful in what we are proposing. There is no alternative. It is a blunt instrument. It could be said, and I heard the Leader state as much, that it was a political stunt. I know Senator Daly is a campaigning Senator and I will give him the benefit of the doubt that his motives are good, but the result of what he is proposing would be an absolute disaster. We must rule it out.

Senator Darragh O'Brien, with his usual honesty and integrity, said that Fianna Fáil did absolutely nothing about this for ten years, and the rates decreased from 2003 to 2010. It appears to me that his party is better in opposition. The good ideas only come in opposition because in government the Fianna Fáil Party is like a hippopotamus with a violin. I do not know if Members have ever heard it played but it does not sound too good.