Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Professor Keane. I was around for some of the debates on the implementation of the cancer care strategy and there was, by and large, buy-in for the project. This was for a number of reasons, primary among them being that our cancer care was not what it should have been or what we as an ambitious country had hoped it to be. Let us be clear, in that we were coming from a low base, so there was the potential for a quick improvement that the public could see and the politicians could support. The clinicians and professional organisations recognised that change was required.

Professor Keane referred to the national cancer forum as being the body that devised the strategy. Was that engagement, the strategy's development and then its implementation by Professor Keane a model whereby many issues, including the perceptions of the public, politicians and various stakeholders and vested interests of what was required, could be addressed? Their support came in advance of the strategy's publications. Was this model helpful?

As Professor Keane knows better than anyone, we have a complex health system. Public and private are intermixed and general practitioners, GPs, are sole employees. Did Professor Keane examine the private element of our capacity or did his work focus on the public health system? In terms of physical infrastructure and personnel, Ireland is still short of capacity in the public system. Did Professor Keane examine any of these issues to determine whether they could complement one another?

I am interested in Professor Keane's views on parking ideologies and examining the evidence. Did the national cancer forum or individuals therein come to the table and examine the matter in an evidence-based and rational way as opposed to trying to make the strategy fit into some ideology?