Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and I thank the Minister for Health for being here earlier. I also thank the proposer and seconder of the Bill. I thank Senator Quinn and his advisers for a carefully drafted Bill. I have drafted legislation so I know it takes time to draft and prepare legislation.

I will start by referring to the Minister of State's area of Castlebar. In the past few weeks an inquest on a 39-year old man who died outside a nightclub was reported. The jury recommended that all Garda stations should have defibrillators and gardaí should be appropriately trained. Twenty-five years ago there were very few fire extinguishers on properties but legislation made it mandatory to install a certain number of fire extinguishers per square foot in a building. The regulation led to greater fire prevention and ensured that outbreaks were dealt with immediately, with less reliance on a response by the fire service. That proves that when action is taken everyone benefits. The same applies to this proposal. I am familiar with the issue of cardiac arrest. A member of my family survived a heart attack due to the fast reaction of his GP and the emergency services. Therefore, I support the Bill.

Last December a report on equipping GP surgeries with defibrillators was published. Professor Gerard Bury, professor of general practice at University College Dublin, led the study. He stated in his report that only one in 20 people would survive a sudden cardiac arrest if it happened out of hospital. That statistic further emphasises the importance of today's Bill. Professor Bury further stated that the availability and proper use of defibrillators by GPs increased survival rates three- or fourfold. He pointed out that it costs around €4,000 for a defibrillator and training to be provided to a GP. If all GP surgeries were fitted with a defibrillator and training was provided there would be a great improvement in how GPs respond to and deal with such emergencies.

All GP surgeries in the country should have defibrillators and proper training should be supplied. The Department of Health should examine this immediately. The infrastructure is in place in GP surgeries. We are talking about having primary care units around the country and perhaps we should examine the basics of having something as simple as this. Perhaps we should be working with the existing structures and ensuring both the equipment and training are provided. That would be of assistance in dealing with the issue. Many of us make the presumption that GP surgeries might have defibrillators, but I was surprised to find that such a large number of GPs would not necessarily know how to use one. This is very relevant in rural areas, in particular, where the nearest hospital might be 20 or 25 miles away. We should urgently examine this issue, especially in rural areas where there is a distance to be travelled by the emergency services and in transporting the patient to the nearest suitable unit.

The Bill is welcome. It has my full support in dealing with and progressing this issue. In my earlier discussions with Senator Feargal Quinn he accepted that there probably would be a need for some amendments to it. We should not put this Bill on the shelf and wait another four or five years before any action is taken in this matter. I welcome the Bill and the Senator has my full support.