Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and the guests in the Public Gallery. This study was designed to be an examination of end of life issues outside of health. I admire the fact it has begun a conversation between the State and the citizen about these issues. I commend Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell on the great work that went into this study. I also acknowledge the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, for having requested this study and support and respect his motives for having done so. As Senator Kelleher has said already, it is truly an amazing and beautiful publication. To be honest, I was not going to speak in this debate because I do not find the topic of death an easy one to discuss but, having looked at the publication, read it a few times and picked it up and put it down a few times, I felt compelled to come to the House and voice what I have to say. For a report like this, it is very beautiful.

Dying and bereavement are inevitable. Each year, 29,000 of us die in this country, which leaves about 290,000 bereaved people in the country each year. Helen Keller said:

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world - the company of those who have known suffering.

When we are dying or caring for someone we love who is dying, the State should be there to support us. The State must do better to support us when we are in our hour of need. This report asks, and I believe rightly so, that where State services are required, they be put in place or that the State help and support communities to respond to the needs of their citizens who are dying or bereaved. The report recognises the need for comfort, financial security, warmth and community care when one is facing end of life issues - in the words of the report, "living well until we die". The time when one is dying and one's family is dealing with the trauma of a loved one dying is a time when we most need to be treated with courtesy and respect.

I am helping at present a family facing the death of a loved one while trying to care for a very sick person and continuing to work and rear children. One Department is seeking forms, birth certificates and bank statements from this man. In my mind, the carer has enough to be doing living day to day, rearing young children in a house and caring for a terminally ill loved one without having to try to look for things the Department needs. The Department should be more compassionate and allow them to live the last few months of their lives comfortably as a family. Worrying about forms and certificates can be done later. When a family is at this stage, they need to spend every minute they have as a family making great memories and not worrying about forms. My family and I know this only too well. Departments need to be sensitive and helpful to families. I have personal experience of this, both positive and negative. On one occasion, my family received a letter from the HSE asking us whether our family member still had a terminal illness. It is unbelievable.

This report, as I said, starts the much-needed conversation about what the State can do to make life easier for someone who is dying in order that the family left behind have memories of a lovely, serene time, not a stressful time of hardship. One must not regret that one's final time with one's loved ones was spent filling out forms and getting bank statements and certificates together. Each Department has a responsibility to take this report on board and see what can be done to build death and dying and bereavement into policy and practice across all Departments. I commend the report to the Minister of State.