Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Sunday morning, I was talking to a referee who was at a local match when a young man from my area collapsed with heart failure despite having had no history of that. The referee was a firefighter, so he did CPR, and the guy is walking around now.

We increasingly hear these stories. There was no defibrillator nearby. There may have been one near the clubhouse but many of the pitches are far away from there. By the grace of God, there was someone there to save that young man's life. Ms O'Shea was saying she did not smoke and ticked all the boxes in respect of a healthy lifestyle. We are hearing of really fit people collapsing and so on. Do the witnesses have any insight into why this is happening? Is it genetic? There was reference to the tests. It is normally the case that a doctor will take a person's blood pressure and so on every two or three visits. Do we need doctors to be carrying out an overall package of tests? That is what some people were suggesting. It may be the case that is not being done in the case of people who are relying on the public system. We need that system in place.

People are asking why are we hearing about this more. The witnesses outlined clearly that obesity is the big challenge of our times. Some members touched on factors such as alcohol, smoking, fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. Who would not look forward to lying on a sunbed reading a book or whatever at this time of year? Those things are all enjoyable in their own right but they can lead to trouble down the road. Unfortunately, it is down to messaging, marketing and so on. As a State, we overly rely on the likes of the witnesses' organisations in that regard. The message is important. The point was made that one-off yearly campaigns do not really last. We need to get the message across in respect of how impactful it is. If we can link it to people's lives and what is happening to the people they love, they will realise that what they are being told in respect of changing their lifestyle and doing things differently or the same thing will happen to them makes sense.