Ms Averil Power:

We can provide those figures.

Deputy Donnelly asked what is the biggest opportunity in this area, and what is the one thing we can do which would make the biggest difference. In the medium to long term the answer is cancer prevention, given the fact that four out of every ten cancers are preventable through things such as the HPV vaccination and through lifestyle changes. We each have it within our power as individuals and as a society to ensure that cancer numbers do not double over the next 25 years, as predicted. That would make a massive difference. In the short term early diagnosis would help. A frightening number of Irish patients - some 3,000 a year - are diagnosed in emergency departments. Approximately three quarters of those cancers are at a late stage, when the cancer is difficult, if not impossible, to treat. There is no doubt that thousands of lives could be saved if people were diagnosed earlier, and if we tackled those issues around waiting lists.