Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann,

conscious of the fact that 20,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the State each year with 7,500 dying from the disease:—

calls on the Minister for Health and Children to make a clear and comprehensive statement on current services for cancer patients in this State and to clarify in detail the position on the implementation of the national plan for radiation oncology;

notes with alarm the recently highlighted situation of a Kilkenny mother, "Rosie", with an aggressive cancer of the colon, who, being a public patient, had to wait eight months for a colonoscopy with the most serious and tragic consequences for her health and life;

condemns the fact that after ten years in power the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government has failed to put in place a comprehensive national cervical cancer screening programme, 11 years after this was announced, while the waiting time for test results can be six months;

further condemns the fact that a comprehensive national breast screening programme is not yet in place;

calls for:

vigorous programmes for cancer prevention including education of children in schools from a young age;

urgency and added resources to put in place a comprehensive programme for the earliest possible detection, and the best possible treatment of cancer;

the immediate extension of cervical and breast screening to all areas of the country;

appropriate national screening programmes for other cancers such as colorectal and prostate cancer;

the provision of 3,000 acute hospital beds that are urgently needed to ensure cancer sufferers are not prevented from immediate admission to hospital when necessary;

the scrapping of the Government bias toward privatisation of health care through fostering tax incentivised private hospitals in the grounds of public hospitals;

regional radiotherapy centres providing access for cancer patients throughout the island of Ireland and to meet the concerns of communities in the north west and south east at the failure to provide radiation therapy for public patients;

a review of the decision to close St. Luke's Hospital in Dublin in view of the testimony of former and current patients about its contribution to cancer care; and

a fully resourced public health service with immediate access to services by all, based on medical needs.

Ba mhaith liom mo chuid ama a roinnt leis na Teachtaí Catherine Murphy, James Breen, Finian McGrath, Connolly, Sargent, Boyle agus Ó Caoláin.

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