Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I advise my Technical Group colleagues that I will not be using all my allocated time and I hope they will all get the opportunity to speak on this Bill before Leaders' Questions.

I personally and on behalf of Sinn Féin very much welcome this Bill as a vital protection of public health. Sunbeds cause cancer. It is as simple as that. Every effort needs to be made to minimise and eventually, through better public awareness and informed decision-making, to eliminate the use of sunbeds for tanning. As legislators, we have a duty to protect public health. In doing so, we have to strike a balance between what might be seen as coercion and the use of legislation to encourage modification of social behaviour.

We have done this quite successfully in relation to smoking, although much remains to be done in that regard. The ban on smoking in public premises and in workplaces has been a clear success in public health terms, but it would not have been possible without the years of widespread education of the public about the reality of lung cancer and the many other illnesses caused by smoking. That was a long battle fought against the massive resources of the tobacco industry and, as the Minister and I both know, that battle is far from over.

Smoking has both a social and a physical aspect. For some, there is a perceived social or peer pressure to smoke, although that has greatly diminished. Far more important is the physical addiction to tobacco that is so difficult for people to overcome. In contrast, the attraction of tanning with sunbeds is purely a product of social and cultural attitudes. It is about the body image held by many in our society. There is almost a compulsion for these sections of our population to have a permanent tan because of the widespread perception that a tan is necessary to appear attractive and even healthy. In contrast again to smoking, there is a widespread lack of awareness of the damage that sunbeds are doing. There is much work to be done to catch up on the public awareness that was essential in driving home the ban on smoking in the various settings that were introduced at the outset of its introduction. We have much to do in regard to sunbeds to bring people along the path to an equal or complementary realisation of the damage that sunbeds are doing.

A very interesting survey was carried out last year among 243 transition-year students at five County Sligo post-primary schools on their attitudes to skin cancer, sunbed use and tanning. The results were quite alarming. While there was a low incidence of actual use of sunbeds among these young people, there was a lack of awareness of the dangers. Of the teenagers surveyed, 77% thought tanned skin looks healthier and 73% believed it looks attractive. Of most concern is the belief among 73% of those surveyed that a sunbed tan provides a so-called safe base for a holiday tan, and the persistence of the myth among some that it is an address or, even more incredibly, a cure for acne. The clinical nurse specialist in dermatology who carried out the Sligo survey said that while the long-awaited ban on sunbeds for those under the age of 18, provided for in the Bill before us today, will be welcome, a nationwide sun awareness campaign is essential. I would certainly echo that call. I hope we will not only see this Bill progress but that the other essential messages and measures will also be adopted and employed over the period ahead.

Legislation, to be effective, must go hand in hand with public education and awareness. In this regard, I commend the work of the Irish Cancer Society which has done a great deal to expose the reality of what sunbeds mean for public health. The statistics are grim. Up to nine out of ten cases of skin cancer are caused by ultra violet radiation from the sun or from sunbeds. In 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer placed sunbeds in the highest category of cancer risk - as carcinogenic as tobacco and plutonium. I repeat that point - as carcinogenic as tobacco and plutonium. The most common cancer in this country is skin cancer. More than 9,000 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in this State in 2010, nearly 900 of them with melanoma. There were more than 150 deaths from skin cancer in 2011, the last year for which I was able to acquire those particular statistics. It is of great concern therefore that the incidence of melanoma is rising and the current rate is over 130% on that recorded in 1994.

The risk of developing cancer as a result of sunbed use is greater among the young. Despite this, the Irish Cancer Society researchers found that in 2010, 28,000 young people under the age of 25 used sunbeds in this State. What is very worrying is that many of them did so on a weekly basis. I was alarmed by that information.

Returning to the social attitudes which lead to sunbed use, 88% of those who use them are women and 20% are between the ages of 15 and 24. It is very clear that parents as well as children need to be educated about the dangers. That is a common task we must all face together. No responsible parents who are properly informed of the high risk of cancer to which they are exposing their children would allow them use sunbeds or expose them to that risk.

It is appropriate, therefore, that a special focus of this Bill is the protection of children and I commend that. I welcome the outright ban on the use of sunbeds by people under the age of 18. Welcome also is the new regulatory regime for a sector that has been unregulated up to this. I look forward to seeing these regulations put in place and implemented comprehensively, and I urge the Minister to ensure the necessary resources are in place to do so.

I am not certain of the outworking of section 14(1) of the Bill which enables the Minister to prescribe training leading to a qualification in the "safe use of sunbeds" which is recognised within the national framework of qualifications and-or equivalent qualification. The Minister might address that when replying to the debate on this Stage.

Apart from the exempted area of phototherapy, surely the whole thrust of this Bill is that there is no safe use of sunbeds. The message is for everyone, not just for those under the age of 18. It is not the position that on reaching one's 18th birthday the risk no longer exists - far from it. I accept that so long as sunbeds are permitted for tanning purposes, the providers must be properly qualified.

However, I would not like to see the impression given that the State is encouraging young people to train and receive qualification for something that, in time, we would like to see eliminated altogether. Perhaps this section can be revisited in the course of Committee Stage.

That raises the question as to whether a simple outright ban on sunbeds was considered. The Minister said "No" to such a step in his opening remarks this morning. I want to ask was it even considered in the preparation of this legislation and will the Minister give an answer to the House in his responding contribution at the close of Second Stage. In Australia, the states of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania have banned sunbeds altogether, a fact I am sure the Minister is fully aware of. In the latest state to impose the ban, Victoria, almost 400 tanning beds operating in 118 solariums across that state will be shut down when the ban comes into effect in 2015. Again, I ask the Minister to expand on his reasons for not taking a similar course. Why follow Australia in regard to tobacco packaging but not on the use of tanning beds given that both have an indisputable link to cancers in human beings, something the Minister has acknowledged in regard to both threats to individual health and public health? I am anxious to tease this out with the Minister in order to get a clear sense of his reasons for making such a strong statement at the outset that no such step would be contemplated.

The Irish Cancer Society has called for the Bill to include a prohibition on people with type 1 and type 2 skin, the fairest skin types, from using sunbeds. I share that concern but I can see that a selective ban would be problematic given that all skin types are at risk. I emphasise that all skin types are at risk, so why ban only the higher risk types? These are important questions and issues we should address and tease out in the course of the passage of this legislation.

In conclusion, I welcome this Bill and I confirm that I and my colleagues in Sinn Féin will be giving it our wholehearted support. I emphasise again, as I have tried to impart to the Minister in the course of my contribution to Second Stage, that this legislation be accompanied by an effective public awareness campaign that we will sustain into whatever period of time is necessary in order to bring us to a point where more and more of our adult population are making an informed choice regarding the use of tanning beds.

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