Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Jody Blake's return. She might bring some law and order to a sometimes unruly House. I also extend my sympathy to Senator Eamonn Coghlan on the death of his mother.

I shared a platform with Senator Jimmy Harte on the night before his tragic accident. It was on the serious topic of a united Ireland but Senator Harte managed to bring it around to his much beloved issue of soccer, a united soccer team and whether he was in favour of Roy Keane's return. He was always a man who brought levity to sometimes very serious topics.

Will the Leader find out from the Government Chief Whip when the legislation to ban smoking in cars when children are present, which was introduced by Senators Crown, van Turnhout and I over two years ago, will be progressed? The Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, came to the House to discuss it and we were told it would be progressed. Two years later, a legislative measure that is not two and a half pages long and with which nobody disagrees has moved virtually nowhere. Will the Leader check out the position in that regard?

On the human tissue Bill, which subject was debated during the summer recess when the Seanad was recalled, some of the Members on the Government were told in their briefing notes and stated on the record of the House that the human tissue Bill would be brought in before the end of the year. There is no timeline on the Government programme for it. The year is almost at an end and we have not seen it progressed. Senator Martin Conway spoke about the issue of presumed consent but we should be clear about that. The head of the most successful organ transplant office in the world, the Spanish Transplant Authority, has stated that Government policy - I mean successive Government policy - is killing people because we do not have two things in place. It has nothing to do with presumed consent, an opt in or an opt out model.

The two things we need are a national transplant authority and organ donor co-ordinators in hospitals. That is what works. It works in the North where there are 27 organ donor co-ordinators in hospitals. There is no point having a presumed consent, an opt in or an opt out model if there is not somebody present to ask the families whether they would consider donating their loved ones' organs. Not having a national transplant authority is one of this country's critical failings in this area. We were one of the last countries in Europe to adopt the EU directive, the premise of which I do not disagree with, but its implementation was flawed. It was the first time in the history of the State that we had legislation on organ donation, yet it was not done right. Even worse, not one Senator, Deputy or even the health committee saw that legislation before the Minister signed it into Irish law.

The Leader might find out from the Government Whip when the human tissue Bill - the introduction of which was promised here, in front of all the Members, before the end of the year - will be brought forward. I can provide the Leader with the extract from the Official Report when it was stated on the record that it would be introduced before the end of the year.