Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

The words "confidence" and "trust" have been at the core of this debate. The confidence we have in our services in Castlebar arises from the access patients have to it, particularly in urgent cases. It also results from the ability and passionate interest of the surgeons in the unit and the quality of the after-care that is provided. We fought to protect the current arrangement. That debate and that fight took place against a backdrop of debate at both political and medical level about the impact of fragmentation of services on our current cancer policy and on the outcomes in Ireland. Despite the strength of the unit in Mayo General Hospital, the figures presented to us by the Minister, Deputy Harney, by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland and the OECD show that our patient outcomes are not what they should and could be, and that is why the investment in this cancer strategy is so important.

Speaking of figures, I ask the Minister to resolve the issue regarding the conflict between her figures and those from the hospitals in Mayo and, I gather, Sligo. An independent investigator needs to be appointed to do that as soon as possible. Unless we do that there will be no trust in a future system. We can build trust in that new system if the same arrangements are in place for the transfer of patients to the centre in Galway, if beds are ring-fenced in Galway for patients from Mayo and Sligo and if oncology patients will not need to wait for a bed. The 100 women who attend a clinic and the five who need a biopsy or follow-up should get a guarantee to be dealt with as soon as possible. Each of those women who get a mammogram and a check-up in Galway should be seen on one day, as is committed to in the Government amendment.

The Government amendment also commits that chemotherapy will still be performed on site at Mayo General Hospital and Sligo General Hospital, and that service will continue into the future, planned along the model, as mentioned by the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, where it is planned centrally and delivered locally, thus avoiding the necessity for people to travel for chemotherapy, the worst part of cancer treatment.

I trust in the policy in the future. I have confidence that this policy will not be initiated until Galway is ready, that the medical arrangements I have outlined are in place as has been guaranteed by Professor Keane when he addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children last December and that a fair, accessible and available transport service will be in place, not just from the various counties to Galway, but specific work needs to be done on a transport policy within Galway. The current arrangements of parking at UCHG do not work and consideration needs to be given to a way of transporting patients across the city. In the long term or even before that, consideration should be given to the location of oncology facilities at Merlin Park rather than dragging people across the city to UCHG.

When Professor Keane addressed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children in December he referred to the Canadian system of accommodation on site or near site for patients and their families. I would like to see that system initiated in Ireland and support given to the Irish Cancer Society to do that.

I have trust in the Minister. Nobody has a monopoly on the impact of cancer or the understanding of that impact. We need to ensure that through this policy that impact is reduced and that fewer people are impacted by cancer.

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