Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the first responders. Few of the Members who have spoken here this afternoon know what it is like to wake up at 5 a.m. with a pain in your chest as if you had just been hit by a bus. I have had that experience. I spent two years from 1999 to 2001 carefully assessing everywhere I went outside Dublin to see if there was a hospital close by. I cannot begin to tell Members the fear you feel when you get a pain in your chest. In December 1999, several months after having stents fitted, I remember getting a pain in my chest in Terenure and the fear I felt. It was late at night and I was on my own. There were people all around me but nobody close to me and I thought this was it and that I would not see tomorrow - the thoughts that run through your mind when you try to put yourself in order to meet your maker. I was fortunate; I got to Tallaght Hospital and stayed there for four months.

Fair play to Dr. Keith Swanick; he always put community issues first. I am delighted to see that his colleagues brought this Bill before the House again. I see no reason it should fail to pass in its entirety. It is, as Senator Ward said, very measured. Please let it pass as quickly as possible without any impediment or amendments. I do not see the need for them.