Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is important that I say a few words on this Bill. I also welcome Community First Responders Ireland to the House. As the Cathaoirleach will be aware I have continuously raised the importance of AEDs in all our communities since I was first elected to this House. I am glad that today we are also including lifebuoys as part of this Bill.

I congratulate my Fianna Fáil colleagues for bringing this important legislation before us because coming from a town with a canal and a river, the importance of lifebuoys cannot be overemphasised. Unfortunately we have had incidents in the past where, when a person went to look for those lifebuoys, they were not there.

The importance of AEDs has been mentioned by every previous speaker and I want to thank the defibrillator operators throughout Ireland, the community first responders and the GAA clubs that have been mentioned. My own GAA club has one and I have been trained in its use. That is important, and something we all should do in this House, to get up to speed and be trained in the use of an AED.

I will quickly mention two other items. We need to remove VAT from the cost of AEDs. As has been said this is community funded. People are going out collecting money to buy AEDs. That is important. Also most importantly we need a national register of AEDs. I have called for this through a Commencement matter in this House on numerous occasions. I believe the National Ambulance Service is carrying out that register and that is important.

Today is a very important day. We need to ensure that when a person looks for that AED to save a life, it is there, and I congratulate the Fianna Fáil Senators on bringing this Bill forward. I again thank the community first responders throughout all our communities for the great work they do.