Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and, like my colleague Senator Gallagher, I welcome also the representatives of Community First Responders Ireland, who are attending the debate from the Gallery. I ask the Cathaoirleach to bear with me for a moment because we have not debated this important legislation for some time and this is the first time it has been discussed in this Seanad. As some Senators will be aware, it was written and published by our former colleague and Senator, Dr. Keith Swanick, in 2017. He saw it through its early Stages in the Seanad and was eager to see it progressed and eventually passed into law, which is our objective today. As Senator Gallagher said, he and I supported it then, along with Senator Paul Daly and Senator Casey, who was a Member of the Lower House at that time but encouraged us very much in respect of the legislation, as did Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, our party's justice spokesperson in the Dáil.

At its heart, the Bill aims to deter anyone who seeks to damage vital, life-saving equipment. It is a simple Bill that seeks to introduce a specific offence of interfering with life-saving equipment. I understand and can appreciate the position of the Department of Justice, which maintains that such a crime is provided for under section 2 of the Criminal Damage Act 1991. I respectfully suggest, however, that the act of damaging life-saving equipment is so reprehensible that it deserves to be explicitly legislated for. Damaging or stealing life-saving equipment is not ordinary vandalism, such as graffiti or the theft of a street sign. These acts directly impact on whether a person survives an incident in his or her most critical hour of need.

The idea for this legislation came from CFR Ireland. I, like many others, attended a briefing in the audiovisual room in Leinster House a number of years ago in which that organisation explained clearly why this legislation was necessary. Community First Responders Ireland comprises volunteer, civilian responders who have been trained in resuscitation and defibrillation and are linked to the National Ambulance Service. When the emergency services are alerted to a cardiac arrest, chest pain, choking or stroke, a civilian responder from the local CFR scheme is automatically dispatched along with the ambulance services. I understand there are currently 270 CFR schemes in the country, all linked to the National Ambulance Service. CFR, like many of us, were sick and tired of hearing about yet another defibrillator having been torn from a wall or damaged, or another lifebuoy having been stolen.

I am sorry to say that, in the almost five years since this legislation was introduced, very little has changed. Just a number of weeks ago, CFR reissued its call for stricter penalties for anybody involved in vandalism against public defibrillators after two had been damaged in one week. Communities in Wicklow town and Tralee were left feeling frustrated and angry that they were without defibrillators after they had been destroyed. Over the Christmas period, four further defibrillators were damaged, in Ballina, County Mayo, Blarney, County Cork, Sallynoggin, County Dublin, and Carlow town. I have no idea what goes through the head of somebody who decides to wantonly destroy a defibrillator - not a lot, I would suspect. A defibrillator or a lifebuoy can be the difference in whether somebody survives a cardiac arrest or in whether somebody drowns.

The majority of these devices are put in place through fundraising by voluntary, community and sporting organisations. Other organisations such as the GAA have been very proactive in this area, including through the establishment of the Cormac Trust, which was set up after the sudden death many years ago of Tyrone GAA star Cormac McAnallen. It is one thing to know the value of a defibrillator; it is another to actually see the value of one.

On the day representatives from CFR came to speak to us in the audiovisual room, they were joined by Cathal Joyce, a young man from Athlone whose life had been saved by a defibrillator. In 2015, at the age of just 25, Cathal suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for Athlone. He simply would not be alive today had it not been for that defibrillator, which was close to hand.

It is important to point out that while much of our focus in this debate is on defibrillators, the legislation also covers items such as lifebuoys.

Like all colleagues in the House, I will fully support the legislation.I fully support this legislation. I ask the Minister of State to take back to the Minister for Justice the views of this House, which I know will be 100% supportive of this legislation. This is so important that it deserves its own place on our Statute Book. Hopefully it will deter people from damaging any type of life-saving equipment that is placed in our communities throughout the country. Once again I pay tribute to the community first responders and to our former colleague, Senator Swanick, for initiating this legislation.