Defibrillators Provision Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11 ============================================================ Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central I thank the Senator for raising the matter, which is a very important one. I join him in commending the volunteers in our communities. He is right the growth of defibrillator provision has been of extraordinary value to our communities. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. As the Senator knows, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, has statutory responsibility for the national driver testing service under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006. The driver theory test is a requirement under EU law. Annex Il of the driver licensing directive sets out in detail the requirements for the driver theory test. These requirements have been transposed into Irish law in full accordance with the EU directive. As the Senator will be aware, for those seeking a category B licence, the current theory test constitutes a series of 40 questions designed to check a candidate's knowledge of topics, including the rules of the road, risk perception, ecodriving, hazard awareness and safe driving behaviour. There is currently no requirement under the EU directive or in Irish law for a candidate for a B licence during a diver theory test to demonstrate they have a knowledge of CPR. However, it should be noted that truck and bus driver are required to have basic first aid knowledge. The Senator makes good points and there is merit in what he is suggesting and proposing. I am speaking in a personal capacity here. Under the new driving licence directive at EU level, driving test candidates, including those seeking a B licence, will be required, among other things, to have knowledge of the measures which the driver can take to assist road accident victims where necessary. This will include a basic knowledge of first aid, in particular CPR. This is set out under Annex Il, 2e(ii) of the new directive. This directive was published in November 2025 and it is planned for it to be transposed into Irish law, by way of new regulations, over the next two years. This transposition will ensure that the requirement in relation to assisting road accident victims where necessary will be transposed into Irish national law in the most appropriate way. Moreover, once these requirements for the practical driving test are transposed, there will be a need to ensure consistency with the theory test and this may present an opportune moment to consider advocating what the Senator is suggesting and adding CPR to that test. In addition to these regulatory and legislative matters, the Senator may wish to note the work that is currently under way under the Government's road safety strategy. In July of this year, phase 2 of the action plan was published. This sets out 12 primary actions which have the potential to deliver transformative changes in relation to road safety. A key action under this action plan is action 7A which states that we will enhance the learning to drive programme based on evidence from international best practice, in tandem with improvements in the driving test. This action is being led by the RSA and I understand work is advancing. The RSA is working in partnership with international third level institutions to identify best international practice with a view to making recommendations in relation to improving how driver testing is conducted in Ireland. I understand as part of this work that the issue of CPR and how it could be implemented is being considered. There are significant merits in the Senator's proposal that all drivers should have a basic knowledge of CPR. We must recognise that there may be times when dealing with a victim of a road traffic accident where it may not be appropriate to perform CPR. That comes back to the point the Senator made about the knowledge we all need to have. For example, where an airbag has been deployed or where a seatbelt has caused damage to a victim's ribs, it may be dangerous to perform CPR. In that case, it is part of the whole movement around further knowledge that we all need to have. In that regard there would also be a requirement on the driver to be able to assess the injuries to a victim and to know when it is safe to perform CPR. It goes back to the fundamental point about the added value that we saw with defibrillators. There is merit in what the Senator is proposing because we have all come across road accidents. We have all been in that situation where people rush to help. People want to do what is best, but it is about that training and skill acquisition. There is significant merit in what the Senator proposes. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-11