Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Tá cúig nóiméad agamsa, agus cúig nóiméad ag mo chomhghleacaí, an Teachta Boyle.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo, agus molaim na Teachtaí Neamhspleácha as an rún a chur os comhair an Tí.

As Deputy Connolly mentioned, this issue has many dimensions. It involves the services, the way we view health and the prevention of illness. The record is not good from the Government's point of view, given that its preventative health budget is approximately 0.25% of the overall health budget, which is very low by international comparisons. As a result, we are dealing with crisis issues, given that many people have not only been living an unhealthy life but in many cases their conditions are not detected at an early stage and they are left in dire need of essential acute services, which often are not available. With the likely closure of St. Luke's Hospital and the increase in the provision of such services in St. James's Hospital being deferred until 2013, there is a sense of crisis due to the lack of services, the lack of Government direction and the lack of delivery in terms of future services.

Some six in 100 women die from cervical cancer per annum. It is a very treatable cancer if detected at an early stage but very aggressive if not. Therein lies an important failure by the Government. As there is not such a screening programme in place, it is incumbent on women to seek their own screening programme. The lack of a screening programme is unacceptable. Cervical screening is not a pleasant procedure. We must learn from other countries with such screening programmes in place which require women to have smear tests every two years once they become sexually active and every five years when in a stable relationship. This is basic preventative care, which is not in place here. The length of time it takes to get the result of a test, which can take six months in St. Luke's Hospital, can mean the difference between life and death for a person. These issues must be dealt with and put right.

We raised with the Taoiseach earlier today radiotherapy services in the North in the context of the Civic Forum and the need for standards to be matched North and South. We need to come up to the bar of the standards in this area in the North which are far higher than they are in the South. In the case of aggressive category one cancers, head and neck cancers, cervical cancer and others, services in place in the North provide for people in urgent need of care, multidisciplinary team meetings are held to provide four to five weeks of daily radiotherapy while in the South the service is not provided on bank holidays. The lower service here means the difference between life and death for people. In many cases people here are generally treated very shoddily.

If one attends a hospital in Limerick, one can be referred to the Mater in Dublin for radiotherapy treatment and it is not an easy task for the person concerned to travel from Limerick to Dublin especially on a daily basis. If one lives in Donegal, one is expected to travel to Belfast for such treatment. Once a person is classified as a Northern Ireland patient, one is not even on the radar of the Department of Health and Children. That skews the figures apart from the other difficulties of having to wait one's turn if one is from the Republic and not from Northern Ireland. Essentially, one has to wait in the queue behind people from Northern Ireland.

People in Donegal are crying out for radiotherapy services in Letterkenny. The Government has said that a critical mass of 400,000 is required, but other EU member states provide a critical mass of only 250,000 is required. If we were to apply standards that apply in other countries, we would have the services here, but that would require the Government to admit that it has a serious problem and deal with it.

As the Minister for Health and Children is present, I wish to advise her that I was asked by the Donegal Action for Cancer Care group if it could have an answer to its request for a meeting with her. It made that request at the end of the summer and it has not heard from her.

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