Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Week after week, year after year we raise the matter in this Seanad of having proper study of EU directives. EU directives are brought into this country willy-nilly without major discussion in the Oireachtas and, to our detriment, we have to contend with the consequences of that.

Currently, 650 people in Ireland are awaiting heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants, one in ten of whom will die if the person does not get a transplant. There are more than 1,800 people receiving dialysis on a yearly basis at a cost of €70,000 each, which annually amounts to €1.26 million. Over a period of ten years, that brings the figure close to €1 billion.

As I stated earlier, one should think of the trauma of having to travel three times, and we all know patients are doing this journey. If we improved the organ transplant system in Ireland, more than 500 patients waiting for kidney transplants could expect to receive a life transforming and life saving operation. We would be more efficient in moving patients off dialysis and on to a transplant operation. The resulting saving to the taxpayer over a ten year period could come to hundreds of millions of euro. Organ donation rates would rise under an improved infrastructure and the cost to the State would tangibly decline, as we have seen in the case of European partners, including Spain and Croatia.

There are two key measures required to have an effective system, both from a patient and cost point of view, the first of which is one single transplant authority, and the second of which is organ donation and transplant co-ordinators in hospitals which carry out transplants. This has proven internationally to be the most effective system. With the correct system in place and sharing of data, patients can be moved off costly dialysis and waiting lists and moved forward for transplants, saving the State money and bettering their lives. This is the reality and it makes sense.

The Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, is present on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Reilly. I presume we will hear a more measured response from him because in his legal profession, one must give an honest answer. The Minister, Deputy Reilly, did not create a clear system for organ donation and transplant, which infrastructure has been implemented in Spain, Croatia, Belgium, Italy and France.

As a former business person, I do not understand how one could have two bodies dealing with the matter. It should be based in the hands of one efficient body. As Senator Quinn so eloquently said and as I have said so many times, as a business person, I do not know how it takes so long for everything to come to fruition in the country when it is left to bureaucracy. The biggest bureaucracy of all with which we are dealing is the EU bureaucracy.

People in Ireland do not understand how difficult it is to get elected to Seanad Éireann. Eleven Members in this Chamber are the Taoiseach's nominees and they cannot remotely comprehend what it is like. Sinn Féin, on the nominating bodies, does not have any competitors and its members are literally appointed into the Seanad. We all must get the nominating bodies to support us to stand for election to the Seanad in the first place. This is an ideal model of a nominating body. Senator Daly's nominating body is the Irish Kidney Association. He has valiantly, over a period of 12 months - it did not work out for him last year but it worked out this year - got on the political radar and got the people engaged in what the Seanad can do. The media are here today. As we have stated here on many occasions, would we not love if they came every day to listen to us? It is a great day for the Seanad. It is a great day for those who are awaiting transplant that the issue of organ donation has got on the political radar. The Members on the Government side are pathetic in giving what they believe are rational arguments for denying that it brings the issue on the radar.