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By Tom Shiel THOSE who declare they wouldn't be seen dead on television may have no choice in the matter because of a new death notice service on Aertel which also offers to send the bad news winging immediately across the world via the wonders of the Worldwide Web. Funeral directors, however, aren't all enamoured by the service as it adds greatly, about £70 including VAT, to the cost of dying. When the national newspaper notice and local radio mention is added to the bill, the overall price of a funeral goes up by about £200. Ballaghaderreen based Tom Sharkey, Vice-President of the Irish Funeral Directors Association, says the local radios, the national newspapers and the Aertel service, which is operated through a company called Funeral Information Direct (FID) in Dun Laoghaire, are competing for what has become a lucrative death announcement market. "The Association is neither supporting or opposing the new service but my own feeling is that it is a bit premature", Mr. Sharkey stated. "I think we are adequately served by local radios and the national papers at the moment." HALVED By necssity, death and funeral announcements on Aertel have to be short and to the point with the result that abbreviations such as RMVL for removal and FUNL for funeral are used. "I don't like the abbreviations", Mr. Sharkey commented. "There has to be dignity in death and this kind of shorthand lessens that dignity". Whatever about the reservations, business is apparently thriving for Funeral Information Direct whose founder, Dermot Dunne aims ultimately to carry a comprehensive list of daily deaths from throughout the country. "We are complementing rather than competing with local radio and the newspapers", Mr. Dunne stated. "The information stays on screen until the day after the funeral and we also have a phone information line which is proving very useful for bereaved families". FID also enters funeral notice information onto the Worldwide Web which means that it can be accessed at any time by exiles in any part of the world. Undertakers are being offered a commission by FID for funeral notices submitted in common with local radio- who have the lion's share of the market at the moment- and the national newspapers.
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