Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

We now have a strategy that Professor Keane has described as being among the best in the world. He has said so to me and to many others and I understand that this evening he said it on television. The authorities in British Columbia said the same and they have one of the best organised cancer care systems in the world, which I have visited. Professor Keane spearheaded the implementation of that strategy and thankfully they have seconded him to help us implement our strategy. I salute those who have been involved in the strategy, many clinicians, my officials who are modestly here, people from the Irish Cancer Society, from Europa Donna and many of the patient groups that have a significant interest in this area. According to a world renowned clinician who has come to oversee the implementation of our cancer control programme we have among the best strategies he has seen in the world.

We must, however, move from strategy to implementation. Strategy will not guarantee success to patients. If it is not being too dramatic, I want to be able to look any patient I meet in the eye, anywhere in the country, woman or man, from urban or rural areas, and to say to them we are putting in place a cancer programme that will deliver to them the best possible outcome, the best chances of survival.

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