Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the fantastic work that the Irish Cancer Society does, particularly the nurses and the daffodil nurses and so on. This committee, in its previous iteration, was very supportive of the asks from the Irish Cancer Society. I would like to think that some progress has been made even though much progress clearly still has to be made. Underfunding is a challenge. It is not the only organisation to suffer that but ultimately it is the patient who suffers. That is where we come in to try to see if we can bridge that gap.

My question relates to operations, specifically around the volunteer drivers. The volunteer driver programme is a great programme. I presume it is funded out of fundraising resources and it is run efficiently. It has been brought to my attention that an 85-year-old lady in Thurles is going for CLL treatment. She was going once every two or three months at UHL. That is now every three weeks. As the witnesses can appreciate, at her age a journey of over 150 km in the morning was quite arduous. They opened a satellite in Nenagh and the medical staff advised this lady that she could get her infusions and so on in Nenagh, which is about 70 km from her home. However, for some obscure reason which seems inexplicable to me, the volunteer driver scheme is not facilitating her. They are quite happy to bring her to Limerick but not to Nenagh. That seems bizarre, given that we have all lobbied to see satellite centres opened and that there is a satellite centre in Nenagh which is willing to give her the treatment. However, she cannot get there. What is the logic for that? Can the witnesses offer some explanation as to why in God's name an 85-year-old woman will be brought by the volunteer drivers to Limerick but not to Nenagh?