Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending to discuss the Bill in the House. I am well aware of the resistance from the GRO in Roscommon. I have experienced it for a very long time. I hope it does not influence the Minister when he comes to think about this and that he will take a very independent approach. I know he will and that he will be very progressive in so far as this is concerned. I am quite confident that the Minister's senior officials will be the same.

Of course the Bill is not perfect; it is to initiate something. It is hard to get people to embrace something new. I accept the arguments on the Probate Office and on whether it is the type of place to have the proposed register. I will not go into details because we will deal with this on Committee Stage.

I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for co-sponsoring the Bill and I thank Senators Noone, O'Reilly, Higgins, Devine, Mulherin and Ardagh for their contributions. I also thank Senators Ardagh and Clifford-Lee for their input into the Bill. I will not go through all the points made because this is a very early stage of this process. I am delighted to see so many practitioners here. It is interesting to have their input. The Bill will proceed from the Seanad and will be based on the experience of Members here who can debate every line of it and may make it a reality.

No information is proposed to be disclosed to anyone on the fact that a person has made a will. That is a matter for oneself. There is no requirement that the will registered must be the final will. If somebody signs a will at the last minute, it is the one that will be probated, albeit ten weeks after registration. That would be straightforward, normal information.

The world has changed and Ireland has changed. So many people of all nationalities are coming to Ireland and joining the community. They could have made wills that may never be found. Over the years as a Deputy and Minister of State, it came to my attention that so many people were disadvantaged by the fact that a will could not be found. So many solicitors have got into trouble recently in this regard. Who knows where the books are gone? The register is the book that is held in the office of a particular solicitor. It is a shame if somebody is deprived of a major entitlement. People become very aggrieved when they feel they have been done out of their rights.

My Bill is an effort to address this issue and I am not saying it is perfect. This is one of the few countries in the Council of Europe area which does not have formal registration. I suppose we will reach the stage at which there will have to be registration covering all of Europe so as to facilitate the bringing forward of information.

I accept that the quality of the registration system at the GRO in Roscommon and here in Dublin is excellent. The records are excellent. This would be a voluntary scheme. Nevertheless, if the Minister could make a small, simple start, what I propose could grow in time. That is all I seek. If the Probate Office is the correct location, I would have no problem with that as long as we could move this forward and deal with it on Committee Stage. If the Minister has an open mind on this issue, it will be beneficial. I certainly have an open mind on it and I have no hang-ups at all about it. We could make it successful and see it through. I am absolutely confident that when the Minister has time to study and think about this, having heard the contributions in the Seanad today, he will have a fresh approach. I am very confident that he will see it through. If he decides to see this through, we will do it together.