I also want to be associated with the Cathaoirleach's remarks on the late former Senator, Mary White. I have no doubt we will have statements on her in the future and I will make a more detailed contribution then.

This morning I want to raise an article published in today's Irish Independent about the post mortem service being in crisis, causing delays to funerals of more than a week. When I read that article this morning, I was taken aback. The article quotes a report from the faculty of pathology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland pointing out that there is a real crisis in the provision of autopsies. Unfortunately, the biggest delay is in specialist baby death autopsies. All of us will have suffered bereavements of loved ones in the past. It is very hard to get the terminology right here but we are noted in terms of how we respect our dead, how we grieve our dead and how we treat our dead. When someone we know dies in a neighbouring country, we often have no idea when the funeral will be held. It could be anything up to a fortnight after death. That is beginning to happen here, unfortunately. I would like to have a debate on this in the House. It is a complicated issue in that the pathologists are employees of the HSE generally. When an autopsy is requested by a coroner, it is paid for on a case-by-case basis by the local authority but ultimate responsibility lies with the Department of justice. I will let the Leader decide who we would invite here to discuss this issue. I know from personal bereavements that there is such solace in getting the remains of one's loved one back into one's possession for the wake or whatever. It must be a nightmare to have to wait one, two or three days. According to the article I read, funerals scheduled by churches and funeral homes have had to be deferred at the eleventh hour because the remains had not yet been returned. Locum pathologists are being flown in to carry out autopsies in the Waterford region. We really need to have a debate on this. We do not want to see the situation deteriorating any further. The sooner we make improvements to bring the service back to the usual high standards of respect that we have for our bereaved, the better.