Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Rather than calling a vote on every single section, which would have been a waste of everybody's time, I will put on record why the Government is opposing the Bill so that our reasons can be appreciated at least, if not understood. Before I outline our reasons, I would like to say that I acknowledge that the spirit of the Bill is incredibly well intended. We do not have an issue with the ideology behind the Bill. At first look, the establishment of register of wills is, in principle, a good idea. My colleagues agree with that. The problem is that the Bill before us today has a number of flaws, which are exactly the same flaws that existed in the first iteration of the Bill put forward in 2005 and the second iteration put forward in 2011. We are here for the third time and the Bill has the exact same flaws.

When the proposals were first mooted in 2005, the Law Society expressed concerns that the proposed registration would be voluntary and would therefore have very little effect because registration would not guarantee that the registered will was the last will and registration would not be proof of the will's validity. The Law Society recently confirmed these concerns, which we in Government share. We feel that legislation brought into operation without the support of the Law Society, particularly in this area, would not have validity.

The General Register Office, GRO, has also expressed serious concerns as to whether it would be the appropriate body to maintain such a register of wills if we were to establish one. The register would not record details of a life event, as is the case with every other register maintained by the GRO, and therefore there would not be an evidential basis for any of the details that could potentially be recorded as per the Senator's suggestions. This will have the potential to undermine the reputation of the GRO and all its existing registers, which are held in the highest regard and which enjoy the presumption of accuracy and reliability based on the independent evidence of the event they record. That would not be true with regard to this particular register.

On Second Stage a number of years ago, the then Minister for Social Protection and now Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, agreed not to oppose the Bill on the basis that the concerns I have just outlined would be addressed in co-operation with the Law Society and other vested interests. Unfortunately, I am not aware of that having happened. At a very basic level, a number of sections of the Bill also refer to me as the Minister for Health. Whether it is technical issues, ideological issues, or the fact that the Bill will undermine the real reputation and accuracy of the registers we have-----