Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. It is really nice to have everybody back in the House. It is one of the best attendances I have seen at any debate in this House. I do not particularly care who shot JR. I do not care whether Bobby Ewing forgot the previous year of his life before he stepped out of the shower but I do care about life and life-giving mechanisms. This is a good day for Seanad Éireann where we show we have a value. I do not care whether people consider it a cynical move or political stunt. That is not what this is about. I have reflected on this. In the course of thinking about it, I remember knocking on a door in Oranmore about five years ago. I met this young man and his wife who had a very young family. One could see the angst in their faces. I contacted them prior to the debate. He was a cystic fibrosis sufferer and had his oxygen tank with him. He was waiting four years and finally got his transplant in November 2012. In that time, he had seven calls for a transplant, five of which involved travelling to the UK. He had two acute rejections that were successfully treated and tomorrow, he is hoping to line out for a 5-kilometre walk or jog on the coast road in Oranmore. That is a human story. I have not met him since he received the transplant. I just remember the pain and worry and the times they told me about the number of "goodbyes" they had to make before he went for the transplant because one never knows whether it will succeed. I asked that family what they think we should advocate today and they told me what many people have said here - trained teams to speak to families where organ donation may be an option and dedicated harvesting teams in hospitals. Again, I do not like the word "harvesting" but for want of a better word, that is what they advised. We have a significant problem. I do not think the key issue today should be whether this directive should be annulled or not because I know that is the technical issue. It should be about how we can genuinely improve our transplant rates and save lives.

Therefore we are down to the "how", the infrastructure and resourcing. We have a problem. It is clear that we are not doing things effectively in this country when we compare ourselves with other western European countries. In 2011 just 42.7 people per million received a transplant here. Contrast that with Norway and Spain where 91.4 and 86.4 people per million, respectively, received a transplant. The fact that we have no personnel on call to approach relatives at the right time appears to be the critical issue.

Dr. Rafael Matesanz, the director of Spain's organ transplant organisation, where they are extremely successful, said what really matters is how one approaches the moment to death. He said one must break the news of the death well, explain the details of the procedure well and really listen, and the family almost always agrees to donate. Transplant co-ordinators may spend hours listening to relatives in a private room away from the hospital wards, asking them to consider organ donation and particularly asking them to think about how their relative who may be at the brink of death would have wanted it to happen. He said the key is not about donor cards, registers or presumed consent, but about organisation. He said:

European people are not that different from one country to another. What really changes is how you approach the moment of death.

While I have not heard any of the media coverage people said Senator Daly got because I was away, at the weekend we had family around for dinner and of the 12 people present, ten would not have agreed to sign a consent card where the organ would be automatically taken. There were many reasons, including fears of over-regulation and the death being hastened because of the great need. What really mattered was the intervention at the moment of death spoken of here by the countries that do it sensitively. As a result we can see they have higher rates. Patients are twice as likely to receive a potentially life-saving transplant in Norway or Spain.

This is about life, life saving and life giving, and it is well worth recalling the Seanad for that. I am disappointed to hear the Dáil is not being recalled. Does that mean this directive will be automatically signed into law? We should be about serving the needs of our citizens. There are at least 650 people on transplant lists. If Ireland were to match world leaders such as Spain and Norway, fewer patients would die; that is a fact.

It is unwise to sign directives into law without proper discussion and scrutiny. It drives Irish people mad. Look at what is happening with the turf cutting and the special areas of conservation, SACs. Years after those directives were signed into law the Irish people realised we Oireachtas Members had not scrutinised them but had signed them into law willy nilly. It is not good practice and it loses confidence in government. None of us wants that. We are realising it is time we man up, size up to our job, and that is why it is great that we are here today.

I will decide how I will vote when I hear the Minister's answers. They matter to me. I am not one to go around annulling EU directives, however if that is what it takes for us to take EU directives seriously I will vote against it. I will listen to the Minister first because this is about the best measures the Government will commit to within a timeframe so we know we have a better infrastructure and resourcing in place. We want people on the transplant list today, who are clamouring for their lives, to know they have a better chance of getting an organ donation because Irish families will be approached more sensitively at the moment of death.