Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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146. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to place a defibrillator in all schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23863/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The issue of defibrillators in schools is a matter for individual schools in the education sector.

I am supportive of having increased public access to defibrillation, including in schools and will continue to explore the issue with regard to schools and will engage with my colleague the Minister for Education on it in due course.

A National Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Steering group was established in 2017.

My Department is committed to improve survival rates of those who suffer an out of hospital cardiac arrest by implementing the recommendations of the out of hospital cardiac arrest strategy which will be completed in the near future.

The purpose of this project is to improve survival rates for those who suffer an out of hospital cardiac arrest through the development and implementation of an out of hospital cardiac arrest strategy up to 2020. This work will support the National Ambulance Service (NAS) and Community First Responder Ireland (CFR Ireland) in their commitment to improve clinical outcomes for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). It is also considering how to improve Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest survival by strengthening the ‘Chain of Survival’ across Ireland. National and international evidence and experience will be assessed to see if it can be applied in Ireland.  It is anticipated that the report of the OHCA Steering group will provide advice to the HSE and the Department on the most effective ways of improving survival, including the use of defibrillators in community settings and schools and on increasing CPR training. Once the findings of the Steering group have been published, the relevant recommendations will be carefully considered by all parties.

Cardiac First Responders (CFR) Ireland, launched in 2015, is the national umbrella organisation for Community First Responders Groups. CFR Ireland works with the National Ambulance Service, Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council and the Centre for Emergency Medical Science UCD.  Both the NAS and CFR Ireland currently support over 145 Community First Responder schemes throughout Ireland, who train community members to provide emergency care support.