Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister for bringing this Bill before the House. Deputy Pringle and other speakers have issued a clarion call about the need for an awareness campaign surrounding this legislation and the impact that exposure to sunbeds can have. Arising from today, it is important that we send the message to parents in particular that children should not be exposed to tanning beds and that parents have a responsibility and duty to make sure that the obnoxious spectacle of young children having to use a tanning bed to look good before First Holy Communion, Confirmation or graduation does not continue. What happened to the old adage of "we are who we are" and self-acceptance? I hope that this debate can send a message that this type of behaviour is from an outdated era and should be changed.

As the Minister alluded to in his speech, we have a duty to protect the health of the nation. This Bill is the beginning of that with regard to the issue of skin cancer and melanoma. I commend the Irish Cancer Society which produced a very good piece of literature for Members of the Oireachtas in advance of this debate. Sometimes one hears that statistics are just that. However, one should put it in the context of information from the Irish Cancer Society that skin cancer is now the most common form of cancer in Ireland. In 2010, 9,450 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in Ireland. Of those people, 896 were diagnosed with melanoma, which is the most serious form of skin cancer. In 2011, there were 158 deaths from skin cancer in Ireland. If we put those figures in context, these lives could have been saved had there been an education and awareness campaign and had the people concerned been aware of the damage caused by ultraviolet light, be it from the rays of the sun or sunbeds. A total of nine out of ten cases of skin cancer are caused by exposure to ultraviolet rays, be they from the sun or sunbeds, and they can be prevented. That is the key point. We see the marketing of sun holidays and the marketing of the tanned look through models and celebrities. That all looks great in a glossy magazine where one has air brushing but it has an impact that must not be brushed aside. Cases of melanoma in this country increased by 66% in the past ten years. That is an extraordinary and spiralling increase that is linked to the issue of image and consciousness around how people look.

If we look at it in terms of public health, which this Minister is trying to espouse through Healthy Ireland, skin cancer has increased between 1997 and 2007 by 75%. That did not happen at the click of a switch. It happened because of a failure of public health officials to educate and make people aware and because in some cases, people did not take responsibility. I was struck by the figure from the Irish Cancer Society which reported that 140,000 people in Ireland use sunbeds on a regular basis. A total of 88% of those are women and 20% are between the ages of 15 and 24. I know we live in a country where we have had lots of rain but that figure should not be hidden but exposed because it is an extraordinary amount of people. I welcome this Bill because it is about reducing the exposure to ultraviolet rays and the incidence of skin cancer. That is, ultimately, the aim of this Bill.

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