The new Minister for Social Protection has confirmed that he and the Government are considering abolishing the highly insensitive stillborn charge.
The much criticised charge currently sees distraught parents having to pay €20 to obtain a birth certificate for a stillborn child. Now Mr Varadkar has revealed he will seriously consider abolishing the fee.
Mr Varadkar told reporters: “This is an issue that has been highlighted by my colleague Brendan Griffin in Kerry and now I’m now preparing to wave that charge in the first instance in relation to stillbirths, and then subsequently, although that’s going to take more legislation, in the case of a neo-natal death.”