Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic and I am grateful to those who shared time. Were Members to discuss calmly what is before them, it would be important not to distort or misquote the National Cancer Forum's report of 2006. In the report's executive summary, it does not say that only eight centres should be established. The exact words used are "about eight such centres". Again, recommendation No. 28, after discussing the question of volume and the size of population necessary to support a centre, uses the phrase "about eight such centres". Therefore, the obduracy in being unwilling to move from eight centres to a ninth, the case having being made, must be justified. However, it is not justified by a reliance on the National Cancer Forum's report of 2006.

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