Council Briefs: Defibrillators in Dublin 15, a missing school building, and more

Searching for defibrillators

When first responders went to find some of the privately provided defibrillators in  Dublin 15 recently, they weren’t there anymore, said Socialist Party Councillor John Burtchaell on 3 April.

“They just weren’t accessible,” he said.

Burtchaell put a motion to the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddhart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee asking that Fingal County Council review the number of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in the area, and look at whether more are needed.

Access to a defibrillator can dramatically increase survival rates for those who suffer from cardiac arrest.

A recent review of thousands of cases of cardiac arrest outside of hospitals by University College Dublin found that the highest rate of survival was in patients who had bystander defibrillation.

Many defibrillators are indoors, said Burtchaell, so when buildings close that safety equipment isn’t available.

“Most of them wouldn’t be accessible to the first responders at the times they get most of their call,” he said. “You know, out of hours.”

Burtchaell highlighted a new local volunteer team of 12 trained responders, including doctors and paramedics, who are gearing up to join the emergency response system within the next month.

“This is a matter of urgency,” he said. “They need the equipment when they go live in the near future.”

Efforts to make sure there are enough defibrillators in neighbourhoods, and that they are in the right places with people trained to use them, are also underway as part of a volunteer initiative in Balbriggan.

In Blanchardstown, the volunteer team put in an application for funding for its own AED so they will have one on hand at all hours, he said. They also plan to give CPR lessons to the community, he said.

“This is a huge contribution these people are making to the community,” He said. “Making our community safer.”

Sinead Proctor, an official in the corporate services department, said the council is going to ask the National AED Network to ask for a list of AEDs for the whole council area.

But AEDs are the responsibility of the HSE rather than the council, she said. “It’s a public health issue, which obviously is the HSE funding.”

In her written response, she did note that there were 18 AEDs in council buildings, within the local electoral area, and the council would make sure they’re listed with the National AED Network.

Burtchaell, the Socialist Party councillor, said he acknowledged that it was under the HSE. But, the volunteer team he was referring to had applied for funding from the council, he said.

“This is filling the gaps in the public health system, where we haven’t got enough ambulances on the road at any one time, and people can be left waiting for a long time.” Burtchaell said.

“So volunteers are stepping in here, and the minimum the state as a whole should do is to equip them properly, if they’re prepared to step in to protect their communities like this,” he said.

Continued push for school places for kids with extra needs

A school in Blanchardstown for children with additional needs had been asked to take in 12 more students this current school year – but without the space and supports in place that they would need, says Labour Councillor John Walsh.

The case is part of an ongoing scandal, he said at the area committee meeting. “An ongoing scandal that is hiding in plain sight.”

“Time has proven that the only way to get progress on support for children with additional needs is to put maximum pressure on the Department of Education, Department of Health and the relevant ministers,” said Walsh.

The school that was Walsh’s focus at the meeting is Danu Community Special School.

Staff had agreed to take the 12 more students for the current year, he said. But the modular building they need for more space hasn’t arrived yet, he says, and they have been told it won’t until this September at the earliest.

In the meantime, Walsh says, the students have been left in limbo.

“It wasn’t clear to the school management that it would be delayed for that long.” He said. “And parents were left without any information.”

Even when the students are eventually enrolled, Walsh said, they’ll receive fewer therapeutic supports than their peers.

Instead, the school will only be provided with resources they already were receiving, said Walsh.

“They will not receive the full wraparound therapeutic services that are available to the other students in Danu, because the school behavioral therapist doesn’t have the hours or the capacity to provide that service, and there’s no resources within the Children’s Disability Network team to provide extra services,” he said.

This will create a two-tier system, he says, and it’s out of the hands of the staff.

Councillors backed Walsh’s motion calling on the chief executive to write to the Ministers of Education and Health to demand the modular building be in place urgently, and wraparound services are made available to all the kids who need them.

It reflects how people with disabilities are treated by the state, said Socialist Party Councillor John Burtchaell. “Families have to campaign continuously to get basic services and this is yet another in a long, long line of examples.”

Butchaell said people with disabilities are an easy target when resources are tight.

“So really, we need to ask ourselves, why this is the case?”

Pyrite in Corduff Park

Fingal County Council is still working to fix up most of the 119 houses in Corduff Park found to have been affected by pyrite.

At the meeting on 3 April, Sinn Féin Councillor Breda Hanaphy asked for an update on repairs for the council homes at risk of warping, cracks, crumbling and the like because of the construction material.

Twenty of those homes had already been sorted, said a written response from Emma Maxwell, an administrative officer in the Housing Department.

Fourteen houses need full pyrite remediation, meaning tenants would need to temporarily move out during the work, the response says. Another 85 dwellings also need minor remediation, it says.

The council is hiring a contractor to fix four vacant council homes, where residents can move to while their own homes are repaired, the response says.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.