Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can we make CPR training mandatory in secondary schools? CPR doubles and sometimes trebles the chances of survival in the case of cardiac arrest. Every ten minutes that go by without CPR reduces the chance of survival by 10%. Amazingly in Ireland, which has a population of more than 5 million, only about 80,000 individuals are trained in or know CPR. It is proven that bystander CPR saves lives. Some 70% of cardiac arrests happen in the home, so it is vital that we train teenagers in our schools with the skills necessary to save lives. We can train up the new lifesavers. When I was in transition year, which is more than 20 years ago now, CPR was optional. That is still the case as far as I know. We need to make it mandatory. We need to introduce refresher courses in order that more people will be confident enough to perform CPR and, importantly, save lives.

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