Derek Keating
Question:195. Deputy Derek Keating asked the Minister for Finance in view of the fact that the current save rate from out of hospital cardiac arrest here is around 7% and that areas such as Las Vegas casinos that had ready availability of automated external defibrillators and which were used within three minutes show a save rate of 74% and where community groups, sports clubs and schools here often have to fundraise for some time to try and purchase automated external defibrillators and for these groups, in particular, the VAT adds considerably to the difficulty in purchasing same and these groups cannot reclaim the VAT, if he will consider exempting these responder automated external defibrillators, and not the more complicated professional devices, from VAT which would help to increase the number of defibrillators in the community in view of the fact that approximately 5,000 people each year die here from heart attacks and if we increased the save rate by 1% there would be more people saved than die from fires in a whole year. [44383/12]
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