James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank all Senators for their support. Some 850 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed every year and 150 people die every year from melanoma. Data from the HSE indicates that the cost of treating it ranges from €6,000 to €10,000 per patient but new treatments that have recently come on stream range from €50,000 to €100,000. The passage of this Bill is timely.

Men's health awareness week ran from 9 to I5 June and according to Men's Health Forum in Ireland, men experience a disproportionate burden of ill health and die too young. In this context the National Cancer Registry Ireland has indicated that in the next 25 years the incidence of melanoma is projected to rise by 175% for women and by a whopping 327% for men. We can change those horrifying projections by taking very simple measures. I would encourage everybody to take action to minimise their exposure to UV radiation.

I thank the Irish Cancer Society, the Marie Keating Foundation, the Environmental Health Association of Ireland, and let me restate what I said at their conferences, they are the unsung heroes of our health service. The work they do is below the radar but it saves many lives. This Bill will further enable them to protect our children against the danger of sunbed use.

I thank the industry representatives, the officials of my Department, the Environmental Health Service, the HSE, the National Cancer Control Programme, the members of the National Implementation Group and colleagues in both Houses. The contribution of all Members and that of the groups I have listed has ensured that we will have a robust tool to protect children and to inform adults about the dangers of sunbed use and the need to protect ourselves from deadly UV radiation.

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for Health for bringing forward this Bill. I thank the departmental officials and all who were involved in pushing forward this legislation.

I join the Minister in thanking the Irish Cancer Society and all the organisations involved in promoting the need to be careful about our health. What has happened in the past 25 years is that conditions are being diagnosed much earlier. We need to get the information into the public domain. The Bill regulates sunbed use for children. In the way we are getting information on the dangers of smoking into the public domain, the dangers of the use of sunbed must come into the public domain.

This welcome Bill is long overdue. I thank the Minister for his work in this area.

Jillian van Turnhout (Independent)
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I too thank the Minister. It is not often that we discuss the prevention measures required for health. This Bill is exactly what is needed when we want to ensure measure are in place for prevention and early intervention. I too wish to thank the Irish Cancer Society, and some of their members are in the Visitors Gallery, and all the other great organisations that are the unsung heroes of our health service. They do not often get public recognition, because it is about prevention.

The Minister and Members have done a good day's work in the passage of this Bill in the Seanad.

John Crown (Independent)
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Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Aire ar an Bhille. It is great news that the Bill has passed. In addition to the practical implications of protecting young people against the harmful effects of unnecessary ultraviolet radiation, it gives us a great opportunity to hammer home the message that Ireland's gene pool has the highest incidence of malignant melanoma. Irish people who live in sunny places such as Australia have the highest demographic of this disease anywhere in the world. This is an emergency problem facing Ireland. The Minister has outlined the numbers, 400 cases in 1998, 800 cases in 2008 and 1,100 this year. The incidence of melanoma is rising very dramatically. There have been, as the Minister pointed out, extraordinary advances, probably bigger advances in the treatment of this cancer in the past two years than of any other cancer. They will give us unique health economic challenges in the next few years when very expensive and effective new drugs are presented for health technology assessments to HIQA. Virtually all cases of metastatic melanoma can be prevented if people were diagnosed early. It must be stated that the key problem is diagnosing the disease when it is confined to the skin, when it has an extremely high rate of cure.

Having successfully shepherded this laudable and worthwhile Bill through the Seanad, the next challenge is to ensure that we have dermatologists in the south east region and that Ireland is lifted off the bottom of the league table of dermatologists per head of population of any country in the OECD, which is a distinction that we do not need. In addition, we need to make as major an educational effort on wholly avoidable excess sun exposure, sunburn, dangerous UV radiation exposure as he and others have done successfully with tobacco. We need to make this a major priority.

When I was a medical student and studying oncology, we thought of melanoma as a terrible but a very uncommon disease. It is not uncommon any more. Melanoma is now more common in Ireland than many of the other cancers which have much higher profiles. As a cause of death from cancer, melanoma is no longer rate. It is becoming a major problem which must be tackled on all fronts, prevention by this worthwhile legislation and education, facilitating early diagnosis by having adequate numbers of skin specialists. We need to be ready for the challenge we will face when the new drugs come on the market.

I congratulate the Minister and say well done for shepherding this Bill through this House.