John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their testimonies. While I am not primarily a rugby fan, over recent years, I have been impressed by the obvious attention the sports organisations, especially rugby, have paid to the safety of players. Apart from motor sports, I guess rugby and equestrian sports were historically the two leading causes of seriously neurologically damaging sports injuries in the British Isles, particularly neck, spine and brain injuries. Obviously, the responsibility of the sporting organisations ends when a medical decision is made that a person needs medical care. In Ireland, we have a more serious problem with our system’s ability to deal with head injuries. We have very few neurosurgical units. They are bizarrely centralised. Huge hospitals that designate themselves as major trauma centres are not equipped to do rudimentary brain surgery following somebody falling off a ladder or in a pub, or suffering a head injury while playing rugby, soccer or Gaelic football.

Are the witnesses happy with the level of service they get in general following the decision that somebody needs to be referred for specialist hospital-based assessment acutely? Are they happy with the availability of scans? From my practice I know that in some cases the waiting list for scans appears to be longer than the life expectancy of the illness one suspects the patient may have. I would be especially interested to know if anyone who sits on an international body has any sense as to whether our system is as agile and flexible in dealing with these demands as other, somewhat more sophisticated medical systems.

I have a particular question for Mr. McKeever. People who are on the interface of medicine and boxing face this argument constantly. Boxing is a special case in that the sport has gone to great efforts to ensure the safety of its participants. However, one can win a boxing match by killing one's opponent or by knocking one's opponent down and causing brain injury. To knock the person out is one of the ways to win at boxing. It is in the rules of the game. There should be absolutely-----