Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I wish to put the record straight. The sum of £1 million, or €1.27 million, was made available for the scheme but when Fianna Fáil returned to office it abolished it. It is true that none of the money was spent. Will the Minister reconsider that the cost to the State of treating lung cancer patients is enormous? One can prevent patients from contracting lung cancer for a very small amount of money. Even if the issue is only about money and not about people, their suffering and the human disaster whereby 200 people die per year, the Minister would save the State a massive amount of money and release one third of all the cancer places in hospitals by introducing this measure and preventing these deaths.

I appreciate the Minister's Department is not a health department. The matter is being dealt with by the wrong Department and I wrote to the Minister's predecessor as well as the former Minister for Health and Children about it. Responsibility for the issue should be transferred. What is the Minister's opinion on the matter? Perhaps he will take it further as responsibility for this matter should be transferred from his Department to the Department of Health and Children. It is a major health issue whereby 200 preventable deaths occur each year.

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