Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As has been said, is rud é atá an-chiallmhar agus táim ag tacú leis. I think it falls into two brackets. First is people’s engagement with the State, which historically has not always been brilliant. That aside, we know it can be difficult at times and there are things we should do to streamline things. Beyond that, people have to be given the ability to do things through digitalisation and to have dealings with the State through electronic communication, thus simplifying it from everyone’s perspective. We want to enable families to register major life events online for the first time. Then there is the interim registration of death, where a coroner’s inquest has not concluded. We have all seen issues people have faced when they could not get the correct details. We have all been contacted with a view to ourselves making contact with the coroner. Anything that can be done on this to simplify things makes complete sense. I can see the interim death certificate being useful in many circumstances my office has had to deal with over the past while.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire spoke about supports for families who have experienced a stillbirth. I cannot imagine what people who have experienced that go through. I think we would all support increasing access to the register of stillbirths while still respecting the privacy of families and loved ones. People will have different circumstances and some may want to avail of the optional public record of stillbirths. That probably falls into the bracket of people wanting to recognise the life and the life that was lost. I concur with Deputy Ó Laoghaire that we need to give supports to people, particularly to the women who find themselves in those circumstances. Where we can do something is in the area of parental bereavement benefit and leave. As my colleague said, with a very small amount of money we can address those particular circumstances. It will not make up for what people have been through but, as a State, it is the right thing to do and it is something we should look at.

Currently, deaths in the State are notified manually to the next of kin. There is then up to three months to register the death and if the death is not registered, no official notification to the State that the death has occurred.

Under the provisions of this Bill, deaths will be electronically notified to the General Register Office within five working days from the date of death and the next of kin will then be notified of their duty to register the death within 28 days, using the existing in-person service or the new online facility, which makes complete sense. This will help to ensure accurate and timely gathering of death information. Bereaved families will then be able to receive an interim death certificate confirming the death of their loved one for the purpose of administering a deceased person's affairs in cases where the death is subject to an ongoing investigation or inquiry by a coroner. There are sometimes very simple issues that people need to deal with relating to houses, vehicles and other issues. Bereavement is a difficult time and anything that can be done to simplify this should definitely be done.

In dealing with this issue, we need to bear GDPR and everything in mind. It can create difficulty when one arm of government tries to talk to another. However, it cannot be beyond us to deal with these issues. Politicians and State agencies are well aware of an issue with the use of the electoral register. From time to time, families receive correspondence to their home or to the home of a loved one who is deceased, which can lead to a certain amount of pain. I accept that nobody intends this, but it is unfortunate. Sometimes we use the register for that purpose and we might not have the option of checking through and making sure that we have taken out every person within the locality who has died. Perhaps that situation with the electoral register could be dealt with. There are numerous ways we could improve the electoral register regarding how people get on it and stay on it as well as dealing with change of address.

I accept that not for the first time I have gone slightly off topic but this is a particular issue. We are talking about dealing with information relating to major life events. There is no event more major than somebody's death. If we can do something small to avoid heaping pain on top of those who have already gone through bereavement, that is something we should certainly consider and I would fully support it.

When talking about digitalisation, there is a wider issue within the HSE. We need to bring in fit-for-purpose IT infrastructure regarding protection and defence. Not only do we need to ensure we secure patients' information in the best way possible, but we also need to ensure the correct information is there when it is required by caregivers, doctors and other medical experts. That area has not been addressed to the degree it needs to be. While we welcome this provision allowing engagement with the State online, that needs to pertain right across society and all governmental operations. None matters more than in the sphere of health on the basis that we are talking about life and death. We are talking about medical care and the means to improve it and ensure that mistakes are not made on the basis of somebody's handwriting being as poor as mine. I think someone said hieroglyphics would be an improvement on what I have in front of me. That is obvious stuff that we need to improve. As I said, we fully support these changes which are not before time. If there are some tweaks that can be made to address the other issues that I spoke about, that would be beneficial across the board.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I may request some element of flexibility, not for the first time. A particular issue has risen today. We are talking about engagement with the State and about systems working properly. It relates to Dunleer fire station and I have raised the issue with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The Government has determined that it will raise the age for retirement for retained fire officers from 60 to 62. I know that this issue lies with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. I know that the Minister has stated that he will deal with it before the summer. The station officer at Dunleer fire station is John Molloy. On 24 May he will turn 60. Today he has been instructed by the chief fire officer that unless something comes from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, he will be gone and the station will not be able to crew-----

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