Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second the Bill. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. It is good to see him here even in these traumatic days.

Within the first hour of this debate, one person on average will have been reported missing in Ireland. One person goes missing every hour of every day. For family, friends, carers and social workers, there is possibly nothing as traumatic as not knowing what has happened to their loved one or the person they care for. The number of missing persons reported in Ireland has increased from 5,000 in 2004 to 9,000 in 2014. I welcome the announcement in recent days that the Garda Síochána is set to gain access to the EU-wide border security database for the first time next year which will assist in finding missing loved ones. The Bill that Senator Colm Burke has introduced would go further in assisting this work.

On 30 January 2013, as Senator Colm Burke has alluded to, the Law Reform Commission published a report on civil law aspects of missing persons and made 19 separate recommendations that formed the basis of the Bill before the House and the work undertaken by the then Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. In the previous Oireachtas, Senator Colm Burke's Bill was accepted in principle by the then Government and the then Minister, Mr. Alan Shatter. I hope this Government would make further progress on this initiative as this would make a significant difference to those affected.

I welcome this opportunity to discuss the Civil Law (Missing Persons) Bill 2016, a Bill that gives clarity under the law to people who have loved ones who are missing for long periods of time and who are unfortunately very unlikely to return home to their families. People in this situation at present are caught up in legal uncertainty as to what their options are when a loved one is missing and the Bill aims to rectify this by putting in place a statutory framework which would provide for the making of a presumption of death order in respect of two categories. The first category is where the circumstances of the disappearance indicate that the death is virtually certain and the second is where both the circumstances and the length of the disappearance indicate that it is highly probable that the missing person has died and will not return. The records of the missing persons bureau of the Garda Síochána show that almost 20 people are reported missing every day, totalling 7,000 persons reported missing annually. While in the vast majority of cases the persons who have been thought to be missing turn up safely, unfortunately some do not.

As the law presently stands in cases where a people remain missing and it is clear from all evidence available that they have died, there is no legal procedure available to allow for their estate to be managed. This is what we are talking about. While families of missing persons always hold out hope for their safe return, it is not always the case that they will return. Where it is not the case, it is helpful to the families to have a clear, legal pathway as to what their options are when dealing with estates, money and property, if any exist. Regardless of whether the missing person returns, those left behind are faced with immediate practical problems, such as how to deal with mortgage payments, how to deal with the lack of access to bank accounts that might become overdrawn, insurance, and all that life has left behind.This only adds to the stress on families and we can help to alleviate that stress with this Bill, which I welcome.

The Bill is also intended to clarify the legal position as to who is entitled to apply to the court for an interim manager to be appointed to administrate the missing person's estate and what procedures must be complied with before the courts will issue a presumption of death order. The applicant may be a spouse, civil partner, cohabitee of the missing person or another family member. When someone is missing for a very long period and in most cases presumed to have passed away, a coroner will also be able to supply a death certificate if the court agrees. The fact that this can be done by a coroner along with the courts will hopefully go some way towards giving a family closure, a word I do not like, bringing an end to their living of a somewhat alien life and allowing them to begin the grieving and healing process that we all must go through when a loved one is lost.

While this Bill is largely technical in nature, it will be helpful to many families. Regardless of the circumstances of a disappearance or the period of absence of the missing person, the impact on those left behind, family members in particular, cannot be underestimated. As the disappearance of any person is often unanticipated and unexpected, the emotional trauma caused by that disappearance can be devastating for those left behind. I am currently writing a report for the Government on dying, death and bereavement in Ireland. I know, from what I have learned while preparing that report, that the devastation of those who are left behind, who do not know what has happened to a loved one, particularly when people have been missing for many years and are unlikely to return, is appalling. The mother of a missing teenager in England stated:

There is no preparation, no luxury of hindsight for dealing with the loss of a loved one. You are thrown into an alien world.

We must try to give some clarity to those people who have faced the devastation of losing a loved one in such tragic, unanticipated and unexpected circumstances. It is on these grounds that I commend the Bill to the House.