Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last Tuesday was World Cancer Day, a sad day. Like so many others I have lost many relatives and friends to cancer, including skin cancer and melanoma. Yet only a few years ago a well-known song, entitled "A Sunbed Song" was played on radio stations, encouraging our young children to go out and top up their summer tan through the use of sunbeds.

I am therefore extremely pleased to welcome the Public Health (Sunbeds) Bill, which firmly prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from using these extremely harmful machines. I have just come from attending a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, at which I shed crocodile tears because the tobacco industry is so concerned about children's use of tobacco that it wants schools to undo the damage of the tobacco industry and to educate children about the dangers of tobacco while it walks away with a massive profit and a clear conscience.

We must protect our young people. I was horrified when I heard that young children were being sent for a few quick sunbed sessions so that they could have a nice tan on the day of their First Holy Communion. I was also disgusted to hear that some operators offer harmful promotion, such as receiving an extra half hour when they buy one hour of tanning.

For too long the use of sunbeds has been commonplace and used as the quick and easy option to give our naturally fair skin a brown glow. According to the Irish Cancer Society almost 28,000 young people use sunbeds in Ireland each year. These people are deliberately exposing themselves to high doses of ultraviolet radiation. The dangerous effects of sunbed use takes years to be fully known, as there is often a long time delay between sunbed use and the onset of medical problems.

The Bill will protect the public and in particular young persons from the risk of skin damage and the increased risk of developing skin cancer. The World Health Organization recently reclassified sunbed use from a group 2A carcinogen to a group 1 carcinogen. With this classification, how can anyone even proclaim that sunbeds have any benefits? In 2011, some 158 people died from melanoma cancer in Ireland. This number could and must be greatly reduced. The Bill will take a step towards doing so. It will help promote a greater public awareness across all age groups of the dangers of developing skin cancer, premature ageing and eye damage from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

While the Bill does not prohibit everyone from using sunbeds, I welcome its stricter controls and requirements on sunbed operators, such as requiring that sufficient staff training, accurate health information and warning signs are provided. Adults planning to use sunbeds must be correctly informed and instructed on how to use them safely. A young man contacted my office after he went to a sunbed-tanning salon and received no instructions. The unfortunate man, because he knew no better, sprayed himself with what he thought was a product for use with a suntan bed. However, instead it was a detergent cleaning product and consequently he was very badly burnt.

The Bill prohibits dangerous promotional marketing practices and certain claims that attribute ludicrous health benefits to sunbed use. Overall the Bill will strongly encourage a reasonable code of conduct among sunbed operators.

Thankfully the Government is making unprecedented moves towards ensuring a healthier and safer Ireland, not just through this Bill, but also through our moves towards making Ireland a tobacco-free country by 2025 and I am proud to be part of that campaign.

As the Minister stated yesterday, prevention is better than cure. The Bill will help ensure such prevention and contribute to a reduction in the incidence of unnecessary skin cancers over the coming years.

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