Paraic Brady (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue that has affected my local community. Sadly, a young gentleman was out for a run with his wife and had a cardiac arrest. In every area we have defibrillators which are there to give a sense of security to the people who know that they are there. Unfortunately, on this occasion, there was a defibrillator that was out of date when it was called for. The pads were out of date. These defibrillators are installed all over Ireland. I urge people in their localities to have a look at the dates and the pads on these. We have trained people throughout our communities but unfortunately if the defibrillators have not been checked on a regular basis - weekly - then the product itself is no good.If sports and other clubs throughout the country only do one thing this week, I urge them to check all defibrillators to ensure they are in working order. Doing so might help save someone's life.

Telephone lines in various localities have been damaged. Older people have pendants they depend on if something happens - for example, if they fall or whatever. Some 4,000 homes in the west of Ireland have had their telephones cut off. Elderly people are dependent on their telephones in cases of emergency where they have a fall or need to call a doctor. I urge Éir and the other communication companies to provide an update on when they expect services to resume. It cannot be the end of March or the beginning of April. That would be unacceptable.