Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1846. To ask the Minister for Health his policy in relation to defibrillators for schools; and if consideration is being given to making defibrillators mandatory in all schools. [35646/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The issue of defibrillators in schools is a matter for individual schools in the education sector.

This matter relates to the work of the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Steering Group. In 2019, this Group finalised an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy for Ireland, “Putting Survival at the Heart of the Community” and submitted it to the Health Service Executive (HSE) Commissioners, who have accepted the recommendation of the Steering Group.

As this Parliamentary Question relates to service delivery it  is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.