Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am in agreement with the Order of Business.

I wish to raise the following issue. We will all pass away eventually and it is likely to be of one of the three main causes: cancer, dementia and cardiovascular issues. We have made great strides in cancer and dementia is still very much a challenge. However, regarding cardiovascular issues, one of the simplest things all of us could do, particularly any of us over the age of 40, is get our blood pressure checked regularly. It is something I do not think enough of us think about. It is known as a silent killer because people can have it for many years, showing absolutely no symptoms or signs of it at all, and then all of the sudden have a stroke or some kind of a transient ischaemic attack, TIA , that imposes enormous and, in many cases, life-changing damage. People literally have been running around the place, working hard and doing everything with not a day sick for many years. It happened to people in my family.

I wish to see a discussion and an awareness with the Minister for Health. We can save money by people not needing to be treated for stroke or treated at a later stage. In the same way we do an NCT for cars, I would like to see us have some kind of situation where we can go to a pharmacist for free - obviously, people can buy blood pressure monitors but many people would not have them – and find out whether there is an issue. If you get that issue tackled in advance, you are saving the taxpayer a huge amount and you are also saving yourself a huge amount of grief. In many cases, possibly a slight change in lifestyle and diet and equally perhaps some level of medication to regulate blood pressure can help. It is an enormously positive thing we could be doing and talking about. I agree entirely with Senator Seery Kearney on vaccines for people who want them but this is something we can do without a vaccine or anything. It would do a lot for a large number of the population, many of whom have high blood pressure and do not know anything about it.