Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish to pay tribute to her publicly for the great work she is doing in her portfolio. I knew when she was appointed that she would grasp it by the scruff of the neck and she is doing so. I commend her on her good work and wish her good health to keep it all going.

I wish to pay tribute to the many communities throughout the length and breadth of the country who have been fundraising for defibrillators, that is, automated external defibrillators, AEDs, and installing them in many community facilities such as GAA and soccer grounds, as well as schools and business premises. Their availability mean that more people need to be trained. To all the volunteers who have given up their time to become first responders I pay tribute. They are a credit to themselves, their families and their communities for their responsibility to and solidarity with their communities. I was particularly impressed by an initiative undertaken in the Buncrana Garda district recently where the National Ambulance Service provided cardiac first response training to members of that Garda district. All of the members took it up. As a result the National Ambulance Service installed a defibrillator in every single Garda vehicle, including a motorcycle, in that district. It is an initiative that I would like to see rolled out throughout the country. It makes perfect sense that those who are first tasked as emergency responders, that is, members of An Garda Síochána, who respond in emergency situations would have the equipment in their vehicles to be able to assist those in a cardiac arrest situation but also that they would have had adequate training to be able to use that device. It is a simple situation that could be life or death. Members of the Garda are on the ground 24-7 and in fairness to them, they respond as quickly as they possibly can. It is an excellent initiative that I would like to see rolled out. I believe that training in basic first aid and cardiac first response is something that should be universal and that we should begin it in schools. I introduced a Bill in the last Seanad on first aid and mental health first aid in order that individuals could be trained from the get-go and we would not have to do it retrospectively.

I not only commend members of the Garda in the Buncrana district but also the National Ambulance Service personnel in Donegal for taking this initiative. They have set an example which could and should be followed up by every Garda district in the country. I hope that the Minister of State will use her good offices and consult with the Minister for Health to see how, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, we could roll out this initiative.It is a simple initiative but one that could prove a matter of life and death to some poor unfortunate individual.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to address the House on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, about the work under way as part of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy with regard to the training and deployment of automated external defibrillators, AEDs. I thank the Senator for using his time to raise this matter so we can have a conversation about it and make the wider public aware of the great work that is going on.

Community first responders are trained volunteers who are co-ordinated and dispatched by the National Ambulance Service to attend actual or potentially life-threatening emergencies. As these volunteers are professionally trained in CPR and the use of defibrillators, they can respond to certain medical emergency calls in the community in those important first few minutes prior to the arrival of an emergency ambulance. Community first responder groups, An Garda Síochána, emergency services personnel, fire services personnel, health services staff and other organisations all play a key role in saving lives and responding to out-of-hospital cardiac emergencies.

As the Senator may be aware, the HSE is currently in the implementation phase of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy for Ireland. This strategy was developed by an interdisciplinary steering group, which had the aim of increasing the number of people who survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Ireland, using national and international experience to address all the elements in the chain of survival. The HSE has since established an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy implementation group to progress this work. The group is led by the National Ambulance Service and actions are being progressed by partner organisations, including Dublin Fire Brigade, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, the Irish Heart Foundation, and as the Senator noted, An Garda Síochána. At present, the National Ambulance Service has a list of locations for more than 2,000 AEDs on its national computer-aided dispatch system which it can use to advise emergency callers, although this is in its infancy.

The most important thing the Senator raised is that, following the pandemic, not everyone within the voluntary organisations has returned to the role of being a first responder. Therefore, the National Ambulance Service has been looking at other ways of equipping people to become first responders because time is critical in these situations. We have seen that in Donegal and in what the Senator said with regard to An Garda Síochána. There is a strategy and a very clear plan to roll it out but it is important that we roll it out at pace. That is for the simple reason that there is a deficit in the number of community first responders at this moment in time. It is important that, where we know there is a deficit, the National Ambulance Service works with the local fire brigade or An Garda Síochána to train and equip them, so there are no gaps left in any communities across the country.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response on behalf of the Minister for Health. I am delighted that there are moves afoot to roll this out at a national level. As the Minister of State said, the most important thing is to roll it out with pace. That is vitally important. We have great community volunteers who volunteer in cardiac arrest situations with defibrillators but for one reason or another the logistics of getting them out to a remote location might prove difficult. The Garda is on the scene 24-7 in an emergency situation and it makes perfect sense for every Garda vehicle to be equipped with a defibrillator or an AED and that every single member of the Garda would be trained to use it. I look forward to this initiative being rolled out throughout the country as soon as practically possible.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Senator for raising this issue and giving us the chance to speak about the continued implementation of the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy. Good progress was made during 2021 on the implementation of the strategy, supported by Government funding, and it is my expectation that progress will continue in 2022. In particular, the National Ambulance Service, via the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy, continues to advance development of a national AED register, which will enable the service's national emergency operations centre to locate all publicly accessible defibrillators when it receives a 999 or 112 call.Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a significant source of mortality and morbidity, with a wide variation in its reported incidence and outcomes globally. Research has shown us it takes an entire system to save a life, which is why a strategic whole-nation approach is planned. Improving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival is essential.