Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach, and wish good morning to all of our guests and thank them for their presentations. They certainly paint a very stark picture of the impact and devastating double blow from both the pandemic and the cyberattack. They have all, I believe, referred to the fact that pre-pandemic, there were major shortcomings and under-resourcing in cancer services in any event. Our witnesses I am sure can gather from committee members that we are very keen to take a practical approach to this to see what can be done in the short to medium term. The point that was made by Dr. Kilgallen on public health messaging is the key one that I support. The Chairman also pointed out that the committee needs to work on that straight away.

There are obviously much more fundamental issues involved, which I will come to in a moment.

What is the current position on the cancer strategy and its governance? There was a sense a number of years ago when the strategy was agreed that there was strong leadership on it. Has that fallen away now? Why is it that each of our witnesses individually representing their different sectors have to lobby for proper investment? Is the governance of the cancer strategy inadequate at the moment?