Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The money has been allocated. This will be of major assistance to medical oncologists and their colleagues. In addition to 107 new consultants there are 245 more clinical nurse specialists. It is not correct that we are losing nurses, because the rate of turnover of nurses has dropped dramatically in recent times. This service, which people portray as terrible, and I do not portray it as perfect, has seen a reduction in cancer mortality among under-65s by at least 15%, which is a huge figure. Deputy Rabbitte makes a good point about Northern Ireland. Medics there say the reason they have achieved success is they have centralised all their facilities into one unit.

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