John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

People who have problems with sugar metabolism must have it regulated and delivered in a particular fashion. Nobody needs cigarettes or a sunbed to live. People use these products not for the sake of their health or because they are a necessity but recreationally or - certainly in the case of cigarettes and possibly in the case of tanning beds - due to a degree of psychological addiction. The question is not one of banning people from using them but from profiting from them. A person with light skin, red hair and freckles can sit in the sun if he or she wishes and nobody is stopping him or her from doing so. My colleagues, whom I support, are attempting to stop people from profiting from sunbeds because, inevitably, subtly or overtly, the opportunity to do so gives people an incentive to market their services in some way.

My colleagues insist only that these people must get a medical report in the same way people do for certain occupations. I would be prohibited from doing certain jobs because I have visual impairment and a degree of hearing impairment. When our children were a little younger we have all stood in lines for rollercoasters where there are signs denying entry to people with heart disease. This is not creating a nanny state but using health knowledge to protect people. In the rollercoaster example, the only potential harm is to oneself. It is not even the same as stopping a person who suffers from epileptic seizures from driving a train because in that situation other people could be harmed. It is spurious.

I cannot let this amendment pass without commenting on the fact that the region of our country with the highest incidence of skin cancer, the sunny south east, has no dermatology service. The dermatologist resigned a few months ago leaving 3,000 untyped but dictated reports with no support for a service which he provided with many months of advance notice that his colleague would be taking maternity leave. Now that the colleague is on maternity leave, there is nobody to see patients who may have skin cancer in the part of the country with the highest level of skin cancer. This is wrong. The HSE has made the decision not to provide the service by omission, not commission, and it is a terrible blunder.