Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for bringing forward this legislation. It is extremely important that proper regulation be put in place to deal with sunbeds. The Minister said there were approximately 10,000 cases of skin cancer in 2011, which is a huge number.
In discussing the health service, people tend to focus on the issues that affect them directly, not realising that many people are affected in one way or another by other health issues. The number of skin cancer cases shows the scale of the problem and underlines the importance of having proper regulations for sunbeds.
The Bill before us will help to ensure that proper controls and regulations are put in place. The Minister referred to the 2009 report by the World Health Organisation's international agency for research on cancer. Due to that research, the WHO reclassified such skin cancers from 2A carcinogenic to group 1. As a result of that reclassification there was a greater focus on introducing proper regulations in that regard.
Section 4 is quite comprehensive and prohibits sunbeds from being offered to people under 18 years of age. As a result, people will have to produce an age card or passport to prove they are over 18 in order to avail of sunbed facilities. The Minister has dealt with that issue comprehensively in section 4.
Section 5 deals with the sale or hire of sunbed equipment to a person under 18.
Section 6 deals with another issue concerning the use of sunbeds which are unsupervised.
I am also concerned about the purchase of sunbeds online, although I am not sure whether this can be dealt with in the legislation before us. I have gone through the Bill to check that but perhaps we can re-examine the issue. Can the legislation deal with someone in Ireland who purchases a sunbed online from a seller outside the jurisdiction? A lot of online shopping goes on, so someone could purchase a sunbed online and have it delivered here from abroad. Therefore, is there anything further we can do in this Bill to deal with that matter? We should certainly examine that possibility.
The Bill also obliges sunbed owners to register with the HSE. When the Bill is enacted, the regulations will be put in place and sunbed owners will have six months in which to register with the HSE. It is fine to have such legislation in place but we must know exactly who is offering this service and what type of service it is. In addition, those offering the service must be familiar with the regulations.
When this subject was initially discussed 12 or 18 months ago, a number of people contacted me who were worried that their business would be affected by the proposed regulations. This is about the bigger issue of healthcare, however, and it is therefore extremely important that we do not have anyone operating a facility that is contributing to health problems. This legislation will provide the required comprehensive regulatory framework.
Given that the country's population is growing, we will also face increasing challenges concerning the medical care to be provided. We must ensure we are up to date with all other countries, and especially EU states, vis-à-visthe treatments that are available. We must do everything possible to reduce the incidence of skin cancer, which is what this legislation seeks to achieve.
The legislation is welcome and has been carefully examined by the Department of Health. I note that the Minister provided the European Commission with the required three months' notice in respect of the Bill.
While this may fall outside the ambit of the Bill, I would ask the Minister to examine scanning services that are being offered to the public. There is a growing problem with such scanning services. I know of cases where no adequate insurance is provided and, in addition, there are serious question marks over whether people offering such services have received adequate training. Perhaps the Minister could take note of that point and examine the matter in the not too distant future.
I thank the Minister again for introducing this legislation. I hope we will soon have all the procedures in place so that everyone offering sunbed facilities will be properly registered and compliant with the regulations.