REGULATION:THE FUNERAL and cremation industry needs to be regulated to ensure a professional service at a fair price, according to the National Council of the Forum on End of Life.
In a “general election manifesto”, the council called for the incoming government to regulate funeral and cremation services through a self-funding licensing model.
Chairwoman of the council Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness said the funeral industry was one of the least regulated in Ireland.
“The lack of regulation in the funeral and cremation industry should not be allowed to continue. Nearly 30,000 people die in Ireland annually.
We owe them, and their relatives and friends, a guarantee that funeral services are professional, regulated, and at a fair price,” she said. A council spokesman said that, of the more than 600 funeral service providers, fewer than 200 were members of the Irish Association of Funeral Directors and fewer than 100 of these were full-time funeral directors.
There are no barriers to entry and no licensing, leading to substandard funeral care in some cases, according to the council.
It cited reports of funeral directors issuing inappropriate invoices to families and anecdotal evidence of providers who paid to have hospital and hospice staff recommend their firm.
Under the licensing model proposed by the council, funeral directors would be required to pay into a central fund, similar to the model applied in Ontario, Canada.
The council suggests that the levy be set at a minimum of €25, which would allow for the basic cost of running a regulatory office, while a higher levy of €40 would provide additional resources.
If the latter levy were imposed more than €1.1 million could be raised annually when based on the almost 29,000 deaths which occurred in Ireland last year.
A discussion paper prepared by the council also addresses issues surrounding the inspection and supervision of funeral and cremation services as well as calling for mandatory training to be provided for embalmers.
The council was established following the Forum on End of Life in Ireland, a year-long public consultation which started in March 2009 and is a project of the Irish Hospice Foundation.