Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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184. To ask the Minister for Health the up-to-date position regarding a national register for the location of AEDs throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46825/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Service Executive commissioned an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy (OHCA) for Ireland. The OHCA Strategy Governance Implementation Group has a specific aim to implement a National Ambulance Service (NAS) AED Registry which is mapped to the NAS dispatch system, and a supporting application for dispatching first responders to the scene of an emergency.

The critical role of community response in improving cardiac arrest survival rates is wholly recognised in the National Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy (OHCA) – Putting Survival at the Heart of the Community (2019). It is the aim of the multi-agency OHCA Strategy Governance Implementation Group (which includes representation from Community First Responders (CFR) Ireland) that Ireland should achieve similar survival rates to our best-performing European neighbours, which are consistently around 10%. In 2022, percentage survival from OHCA rose to 7.8% with 206 people returning home to their families – an additional 28 people when compared with 2021 so Ireland is well on the way to achieving this aim.

A key recommendation of the OHCA Strategy was to develop a CFR application (CFR App) and a registry of publicly available automated external defibrillators (AED Registry) for the Republic of Ireland. These developments will provide the technological backbone needed to ensure community response in Ireland is optimised. In time, such projects have the potential to benefit everyone living on, working in or visiting the island of Ireland. This technology will enable publicly accessible defibrillators (AEDs) to be registered in a robust and systematic manner. In the event of a cardiac arrest call, location of AEDs will then be available to NAS call takers, who can in turn direct the caller to the nearest device. Ireland already has a network of over 2,000 volunteers who provide a community response to OHCA for the NAS. While the current text alert system works well, a Community First Responder (CFR) App will streamline the process for dispatching and monitoring CFRs as necessary. Most importantly, this technology is proven in international best practice to increase survival from OHCA.

The OHCA Strategy is a stated objective in the HSE Service Plan 2023, and the project is agreed by the multi-agency OHCA Governance Group as Priority Actions for 2023. The project aims firmly align with the principles of ensuring the right care is available to citizens in the right place at the right time.