Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I will not take six minutes because, like Senator John Crown, I am delighted with the Bill on which I congratulate Senator Feargal Quinn. As Senator Marc MacSharry said, this is a no-brainer. The Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, talked about prevention, which we all want to see. We want to see nil use of tobacco, responsible use of alcohol, correct diet and exercise, which is a wonderful, educational, long-term goal for Ireland. I also believe "prevention" is a word we need to use in conjunction with the Bill. We will get it through and it will prevent deaths and save the health service money because somebody who survives a heart attack but is incapacitated in hospital long term is costly to the State. What is more important for us in the Seanad and the country than the health of citizens? To be able to stand here and be part of something that could help save people's lives is amazing.

I was disappointed by what the Minister for Health said at the end of his contribution. I was excited when he said, "I have sought and received Government approval." I thought he was going to say, "Come on Senator Quinn; let us push your Bill through." However, he went on to say, "The Health Information and Quality Authority will undertake a health technology assessment of a public access defibrillator programme in Ireland." How many years will that take? Again, as Senator Marc MacSharry said, this is a no-brainer. The Minister said he would think about drafting a Bill when the report came out. The Bill has already been drafted; the work has been done. We need to work together with Senator Feargal Quinn to produce a few amendments and tweak the Bill.

I would have a lot more questions for Senator Feargal Quinn on funding. Senator Marc MacSharry raised the issues of tax write-offs and fundraising. I own and run a small company and some eight years ago I put in place a defibrillator. We updated our training programme only two weeks ago. We have 36,000 sq. ft. and we like to train people in all parts of the building. The defibrillator is to be found only three minutes away from anyone and there are 112 of us in the building. For me, it is a no-brainer for the employees who work eight or nine hours per day. I would like to make it part of the health and work safety programme. There are some ridiculous things we do in health and work safety rules that are not anything like as important as this could be in saving the life of a visitor to one's business or that of one of one's valuable employees. I was so excited to see the Bill today because we did it in our own little company eight years ago. As one of the former Senators said, like a fire extinguisher, this is a must-have.

Senator Feargal Quinn mentioned supermarkets, but I would like this to be broader. What is wrong with all workplaces with a certain number of employees having a defibrillator? We will have to examine the issue of funding. That year we were not particularly profitable. Senator Feargal Quinn mentioned a figure of €1,500, plus some training costs. One can usually obtain a grant towards training. Surely businesses can find that money to protect the health and lives of their employees. We could consider apartment buildings and landlords; there are many other places of which we can think. I am shocked to think that GPs are not trained. Senator Feargal Quinn has my full support and if there is anything I can do to help him push the Bill through, I ask him to call on me.