James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tá fadhb bheag againn anseo, agus is í sin an focal "sábháilte" or "safe". The primary objective of the Bill is to protect children and those under 18 years of age from the risk of skin damage from the use of sunbeds in view of their increased risk of developing skin cancer, and we are all agreed on that. It is also to regulate the use of sunbeds by those over 18 years of age so as to reduce their likelihood, among other things, of developing skin cancer, premature ageing and damaging their eyes from exposure to ultraviolet radiation and to generally promote a greater public awareness across all age groups with a long-term view to reduce the incidence of skin cancers. The WHO has advised that without trained staff and adequate advice the potential for harm for the uninformed consumer is much greater. The WHO has further noted that in a largely unregulated industry where training of staff is not mandatory, this increases the health risks considerably.

I acknowledge the Deputy's point that the use of the word "safe" in the context of sunbeds is somewhat problematic but it is necessary in order to minimise the harm such equipment can do and for that reason I cannot accept the Deputy's proposed amendment, particularly because he used the word "authorised", which implies that we are authorising these premises which we are not. What we are doing is mandating who can use them and who cannot and the training that must go with them. If we were seek to authorise all these premises, we would be into a whole new raft of legislation. I am not being difficult, we have considered this word and other words such as "appropriate" and words like that, but it comes back to the same problem. They all give somewhat of a message that if we use the word "safe" that it is safe, whereas what we are saying is that it is safer at the end of the day to have them regulated, make sure they are hygienic and ensure that the customer is informed of the risk, but not safe in so far as people should not be using them at all. However, we are limited by EU law and by where we find ourselves. I know what the Deputy is trying to say and I share the sentiment, but we looked at this and certainly the word "authorised" is not one we could use because that implies authorisation and we are not authorising these premises.