Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The world held its breath on Saturday evening. Europe held its breath and Ireland held its breath as Christian Eriksen fought for his life. Many say the cameras showed us what was happening for too long, but because they spent so much time showing us, it has alerted the world to the importance of defibrillators and what they can do. I fully endorse and support the comments of Senator Wall. I want to use my time this morning to encourage the Government and all communities to ensure defibrillators are working.

There is no question about it: a great effort has been made to install defibrillators throughout the country. Between 2006 and 2010 a lady called Eunice Langley from a little village called Roosky founded DARA Ireland. That organisation went a long way towards ensuring many counties have defibrillators, but I firmly believe many of them are not working. If anything was brought home to us on Saturday evening it was the importance of defibrillators. We must ensure, first, that every community has a defibrillator and, second and most important, that it is working. We should remind ourselves we have a number of similar instances in this country almost every year. We have seen that defibrillators have been so important. I know the Leader will take this message back and I know where her own heart is in this regard, but we all have a responsibility - politicians, communities and the Government - to make sure we have up-to-date defibrillators throughout the country and, most important, that they are all working.