An tseachtain seo caite, labhair mé anseo mar gheall ar an obair thábhachtach i gceantar Iorrais i gContae Mhaigh Eo. Leanann an obair go stóchúil agus Dé Domhnaigh seo caite tugadh isteach corp Captain Mark Duffy.

The dignity with which Captain Mark Duffy, from Rescue 116, was borne ashore on Sunday last is something that will stay with me forever. He gave his life so that others might live. Along with his colleagues, he was a hero and somebody to hold up as a role model to our children. Heroes do not arrive out of nowhere. They are the embodiment of their family and often their communities. Captain Mark Duffy will be laid to rest tomorrow in his home village of Blackrock in County Louth. It is striking that his funeral notice reads: "Mark's wish would be for you to carry an organ donor card." It is very fitting that this notice by the Duffy family comes just at the start of Organ Donor Awareness Week that has been organised by the Irish Kidney Association. Many people here in the Seanad have done great work to promote the importance of organ donation, including my colleague, Senator Mark Daly. Approximately 700 people in Ireland await life-saving heart, lung, liver, kidney and pancreas transplants. Thanks to the gift of organ donation over 3,000 people in Ireland enjoy an extended life. Just like the thousands rescued by the Irish Coast Guard, they too have been rescued and given a new lease of life.

While the focus of Organ Donor Awareness Week is to raise awareness, I was heartened to hear what the Minister for Health said yesterday. He said:

[He has prioritised] the development of legislation to provide for an opt-out system of consent for organ donation. My Department is currently working on this in the context of the work required to develop an overarching human tissue policy and legislative framework.

He also said that he intends to bring a memorandum to Government shortly on this matter. I urge the Leader and his Government colleagues to keep the pressure on so that this can happen as it will save lives.

Senator Craughwell remarked that since the foundation of the State, 60% of Garda Commissioners have been hounded out of office. That fact does not surprise me. The first time it happened was in the Dáil in the 1920s when Austin Stack and others made unjust remarks about District Inspector Kearney who was due to be made the Commissioner of the newly-formed Garda Síochána.

Why I am interested in disrespect of Kearney is that he was the man who arrested Roger Casement. He was the man who left the door open for Austin Stack, and many others, to release Roger Casement. It was at their ineptitude that they made these scurrilous remarks. District Inspector Kearney moved to Boyle and saved my grandfather's life from a Black and Tan assassination squad. Those allegations were made and he and his family had to high-tail it to London because of the remarks made in this Oireachtas by Austin Stack and many others.

I have now seen the way Alan Shatter was treated. I have seen many Garda Commissioners. My grandfather was one of the first garda in An Garda Síochána. The men and women of An Garda Síochána stood for this State and defended it and I will have no truck, as a politician, with other politicians using parliamentary privilege to make comments about the men and women of An Garda Síochána. If it is true, make the comment. There is a frenzy out there. We need to reflect that, sometimes, if we make remarks in the Chamber, we do a disservice to men and women, and to the Garda reputation. Perhaps we should draw the line at the men who held the line in setting up, and saving, the State. If it is true, then say it, but Alan Shatter did not get many apologies from the press or from Members of the Oireachtas. I think we should be strong enough and mature enough, if we make a mistake, to say that we made a mistake on the record of the Dáil or the Seanad.