11 October 2017
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Damage to the defibrillator casing in Mallow, Co. Cork illustrates the need for legislation to be enacted immediately to address this issue. The Life Saving Equipment Bill 2017 has been published by Fianna Fáil Senator Dr Keith Swanick (based in Co Mayo) which could jail and or impose a huge fine on those convicted of tampering with a life saving device such as a defibrillator or a lifebuoy.
According to Senator Dr Keith Swanick, “The incident in Mallow is a disgrace because the defibrillator box was vandalised, meaning that the defibrillator will have to be removed until the box is repaired. The Mallow Search and Rescue group put this defibrillator in place with the kind support of the Credit Union in Mallow, so that it was in place to help people who are critically ill. I have been campaigning on this issue for some time because vandals need to know that there are serious consequences arising from the theft of or damage to life saving equipment such as defibrillators or lifebuoys. To tackle this issue I have drafted a new piece of legislation called the Life Saving Equipment Bill 2017 which could jail and or impose a huge fine on those convicted of tampering with a life saving device such as a defibrillator or lifebuoy.”
“The legislation is due to be debated in the coming weeks and the incident in Mallow highlights again the need for strong legislation to to act as a serious deterrent to the thugs who routinely damage or steal life saving equipment all over Ireland. To put pressure on the Government I have a public online petition to support the Live Saving Equipment Bill.”
The petition has over 15000 signatures and can be signed at https://www.change.org/p/
