Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

This is an important motion, even if all we, as Independent Deputies, achieve is to help to ensure, as Mr. McCormack, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, stated, that a momentum is reached and that plans for delivery of services are achieved now. We cannot undo the neglect of successive Governments of this vital part of the health service. As Mr. McCormack also stated, cancer patients do not have a voice and have been badly let down for too long.

In a modern and extremely affluent society, it is unacceptable that people too vulnerable to highlight their own suffering are obliged to cope with waiting lists for radiotherapy and travel long distances for treatment. Waiting lists for prostate and lung cancer in particular are intolerably long and must be addressed now. Equally intolerable is that women are dying because we do not have a nationwide cervical screening programme. These are not my words, they are the words of the chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society. With proper screening, the number of deaths and serious cancer conditions could be dramatically reduced. It is a scandal that this has not happened. Nationwide cervical screening has been in place in England since 1988 and in Canada since 1960. Despite its great affluence, Ireland is still nowhere near achieving that.

Equally important is the issue of inequality in our health services. The plight of public patients is highlighted by the plight of the Kilkenny mother, Rosie. How many others on waiting lists are suffering in the same way as the woman to whom I refer? This inequity permeates all sectors of the health service. The inequality of the two-tier health system is compounded by the fact that there is a far higher incidence of serious illnesses such as cancer in disadvantaged communities, most of the members of which are public patients. These people have no voice to demand equality of access to treatment. As long as the two-tier system exists, there will be tragedies such as that involving Rosie and so many others who have no voice.

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