Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for attending. This law has been up and running in Scotland since 1977 and there is the Presumption of Death Act 2013 in the rest of the UK. This is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Since I published this Bill, there was a tragic incident off the west coast. In another case a number of years ago in Tipperary, someone went missing and it was more than three years before the body was discovered. Very little could be done about the person's affairs while there was still uncertainty.

Obviously, I accept that there must be amendments. This Bill arose from the report of the Law Reform Commission, which conducted a careful examination, not only of the legislation in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, where legislation was put in place in 2009, but of the legislation in other jurisdictions like Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

It is important that we progress this matter. There is an uncertainty during what is a difficult time for families. All that we are trying to do is put in place a mechanism for them to try to deal with the affairs of the missing person, in particular where all of the circumstances indicate that he or she has died, be that at sea, in an air traffic incident or in any other situation where there is no possibility of the person still being alive. It is important that we make available mechanisms for people to deal with the affairs of the person who everyone accepts is deceased. We should progress this legislation at an early date.

We can learn from what has been done in Scotland, where there is an average of five applications per year. In some years, there are very few altogether. As such, we are only discussing a small number of people, but it is important that safety mechanisms be there. If we put legislation in place and, for some reason or other, it needs to be reviewed in future, then that must be done.