Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise one other issue with Minister of State, which has, sadly, raised its head on foot of a court decision during the past year. That relates to defibrillators that are funded through the Department. The difficulty, as a result of that High Court judgment last year, is that if defibrillators are not being checked, if the pads are not replaced, if they are not housed in heated defibrillator cabinets or if they are out of warranty, community groups could be found liable should someone die when they look to use a defibrillator. Community groups and sports clubs either have to become legal limited companies to get around this or the volunteers themselves will become personally liable. There is a second option, which is to expand some of the existing community emergency response systems so that they would effectively take over liability of these issues in a more cost-effective way.

I will send a note to the Minister of State's officials. I would ask that he would examine this issue. We need operational defibrillators throughout this country. I do not want to see a chilling effect on foot of this court decision. The Department, as well as the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, needs to be far more proactive in ensuring that we can find a workable solution to this problem.