Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have a driving licence system through which we collect the information as to who wants to be an organ donor. In May we had the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in the House and we explained to him, although he was not aware of it, that he shares data on people's driving licences with private companies like eFlow, those doing clamping and the Courts Service. Despite this, he does not allow the health service to access the information that is in the driving licence registry of who does and does not want to be an organ donor. It is a simple systems failure, like our organ donation system itself, where we spend hundreds of millions every year on dialysis.

If we had proper systems whereby health professionals were able to contact the driving licence authority and then tell people that their son or daughter wanted to be an organ donor and that they have a copy of the driving licence, they would be able to inform families of their loved one's intentions. While that simple change to the system is not being considered, the Minister is proposing a grandiose opt-out system that will cost millions, even though the family will still have a veto, as they should. Does that sound like a system that is working or a system we should have, when we have a driving licence system in place that checks every ten years whether someone wants to be an organ donor?