Ms Rachel Morrogh:

In the Irish Cancer Society one of the things we hear about regularly is the financial impact of cancer. Cancer is not something for which one sets aside savings or puts financial supports in place to manage its cost.

One of the things we have heard is that people are not prepared for that cost, so in all of our pre-budget submissions we have asked the Government to step in and try to reduce current levies, such as car parking, inpatient charges and outpatient charges. A reduction in these levies would make the lives of cancer patients much easier, so we encourage all members of the committee to do what they can to drive down those costs.

On the issue of those who have received their cancer diagnosis alone, or who have received some bad news in the last number of months, our support line, which is staffed by oncology nurses, has dealt with many calls from those feeling the loneliness that has permeated the Covid period. We spoke earlier about fear, and cancer patients in particular have been very fearful about accessing healthcare and getting Covid, and it is likely that this fear has translated into them not seeking healthcare when they should. It is important that we do everything we can to enable people to share those moments with those they love. If anything, the pandemic has highlighted the human side and what is important to all of us is our health, our families and our friends. It is important to remember those things. Psychological support has been invaluable throughout Covid, and the Irish Cancer Society has stepped up in that respect. We are pleased to partner with the NCCP and Cancer Care West in providing additional psychological supports for people, but these supports need to be provided to everyone and need to be woven into the cancer system so that they are available as a standardised model of care, and this has been approved by the NCCP. That is going to require putting people into roles to provide this support, because having cancer is a very traumatic experience, both physically and psychologically.

With regard to men's health, like every other sector of society, we need targeted approaches to encourage people to access healthcare to make sure they get diagnosed as early as possible. The supports required need to be put in place, and the Irish Cancer Society would very much like to partner with others in that area to ensure we can work together and get people into care as quickly as we can.