Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for facilitating my participation in the debate. It struck me when Deputy Flanagan was making his contribution that the area of buy one, get one free was a problem. At the time the Visitors Gallery was full of young ladies. Often, this is the very market that is exploited on the basis that sunbeds will enhance their good looks. Sunbed operators sell a product, wrongly, to convince, for the most part, young women to go under sunbed treatment. It is a treatment. This involves burning their skin to change its colour. In theory it makes them better looking and feel better about themselves, etc. It is all part of a marketing ploy.

I was pleased to see various school classes in the Visitors Gallery as the debate got under way. They were for the most part made up of young women. They were listening to the debate and they heard the seriousness of it. Certainly, when I was their age I never thought about cancer or its serious effects. Every family has been touched by the horrible C word. I am referring to when the investigation has been carried out, the medical personnel arrive, the curtain is pulled back and the person is told he has cancer. Unfortunately, I was one of those people many years ago. I was told at short notice I had cancer and had to undergo surgery. It is somewhat ironic in many ways that Professor Crown entered the Seanad at the same time I entered the Dáil. He was my doctor and treated me throughout eight months of chemotherapy, successfully, as everyone can see at the moment.

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