Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for returning to the House again today. I appreciate all the time that he gives us. I commend Senator Quinn in particular and Senator Crown on bringing forward this Bill. It is a no-brainer. Senator Quinn has made the points on the positive impact that this can have. The statistics seem to show it is all about how quickly a person can have access to a defibrillator. The key period is five minutes and if access to a defibrillator is secured within five minutes survivability is of the order of 50% for young people but if ten minutes elapse before access is secured almost none would survive, but with CPR around 10% to 20% would survive.

It is a no-brainer. Defibrillators should be made available as widely as possible and, thankfully, they are. The bar that I frequent has one and it is clearly visible behind the bar counter. My local football club is fundraising in order to install one in its clubhouse. Senator Quinn has done us a service by making a pitch for the installation of defibrillators at designated locations and I agree with all of them. The process need not be delayed. It is good that the Minister does not oppose the Bill. It is also good that HIQA is examining the potential to extend the Senator's list. We should push on and use the Senator's Bill as a template for making defibrillators and training widely available. Frankly, I disagree with the Minister's statement that if a post office has a defibrillator the local GAA club does not need one. The measure is about saving lives to the extent that funds are available. Funding could be secured by encouraging the private sector to get involved. The Government could provide a tax write-off to an individual or company that sponsors the installation of a defibrillator and training. Local communities will not be found wanting when it comes to fundraising. They would further supplement capital costs incurred by the Department, the HSE or whatever body is assigned to rolling out the scheme.

The Construction Contracts Bill was abandoned for a long period, but now there has been some progress. Today's Bill provides a template and leaves us with no excuse to delay the programme. Perhaps HIQA could be asked to bring its deliberations to a speedy conclusion. If that happened we could kick on and roll out a national programme and worry about the cost at that time. The overall picture would be a gain because the saving of lives greatly outweighs the creation of a capital outlay for the State programme.

Senator Quinn mentioned a survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that was formerly 1% and is now around 6%. The target of a 50% survival rate for young people is achievable and is something that we should strive for.

The Minister used much of his speech to praise one of his clinical programmes entitled Changing Cardiovascular Health. He celebrated the fact that we have risen from the bottom of the league to the very top in 18 months. That is in the eye of the beholder and depends on which side of the House one sits on. The clinical programmes have been widely celebrated. The national cancer control programme and the new approach to cardiac care have been a great success for 80% of people. I am sure that objective commentators find statistics showing that these clinical programmes provide 80% coverage when operating at optimum levels acceptable and something to be celebrated. The north west region does not have the appropriate infrastructure to roll out the ambitions contained in Changing Cardiovascular Health. I have said that many times here. The region does not have a cardio categorisation laboratory and there is no plan to create one. Instead, when Professor John R. Higgins rolled out the new hospital programmes in a private briefing to Oireachtas Members he said to me that the road between Sligo and Galway would improve and cross-Border co-operation would be expanded. Let us put politics aside. The people of the north west region deserve a little bit more strategic planning by their Government. It does not matter that whether people support the Labour Party, Fine Gael or Sinn Féin. It is extremely insulting for someone to simply say we are going to improve the road from Sligo to Galway and we are going to talk a little bit more with the North-South Ministerial Council. The Minister of the day has the comfort of hiding behind statistics. The clinical programmes have been extremely successful but only if one lives in the right part of the country. It is a different picture if one lives north of a line between Dublin and Galway and west of Mullingar.

We all wish the peace process continued success. However, I like to think that the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, is looking after my sporting needs in the context of legislation rather than his counterpart across the Border. I do not expect the Queen of England to look after our health. There is much to celebrate about the clinical programmes but at some stage the Government will need to take appropriate cognisance of the fact that the region has inadequate cardiac care and no radiotherapy for cancer treatment. I apologise for going off on an aside but the Minister did the same when he made his address.

I commend the Bill to the House and commend Senator Quinn on his introduction of it. I regret that Private Members' Bills presented by non-Independent Senators are not always openly encouraged.