Fianna Fáil Senator Terry Leyden has published a Bill to allow the location of wills to be registered centrally to ensure that estates of dead people are distributed as intended.
The Registration of Wills Bill 2005 will allow someone making a will to register with the General Register Office the name and address of the custodian of the document. "Lost wills will now be a thing of the past," Mr Leyden said yesterday.
"Many people's wishes are not being honoured," he said. "Many people make wills not knowing that sometimes they may not be executed correctly or at all." This was because often the relatives could not find out where the will had been left.
He said leader of the Seanad Mary O'Rourke had agreed that the Bill would be debated in Government time in the autumn. Minister for Health Mary Harney, who is responsible for the area, had indicated that she broadly supported the measure.
He believed this was the first Private Members' Bill introduced by a Government senator, and he hoped that, with Ms Harney's backing, it could become law by the end of the year.
In 2004 just 5,400 wills were probated in the State, Mr Leyden said.
"Considering nearly 30,000 people died, there is a significant shortfall." He said his Bill proposed that registration of the location of wills be voluntary, and be done with the General Register Office which currently registers births, marriages and deaths.