Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Very well. I will continue to raise the important issues associated with the deaths of Tania McCabe and her son Zach, again at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

The Minister should address some of the issues I have raised because the crisis appears to be worsening. Statistics show the incidence of cancer is increasing throughout the State. Unfortunately, it continues to increase in my constituency and adjoining areas and many believe this is due to the toxic fall-out from the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield. No inquiry, study, or survey has been carried out or set up in the area to try to establish the reason the incidence of cancer in the north-east region, and in County Louth in particular, is constantly between 12% and 13% above the national average. Why has the Minister for Health and Children not sought to deal with the high incidence of cancer in the area? Why, in common with her predecessors, is the Minister not concerned about this matter, despite calls from me and others to deal with it once and for all? No benchmarking has been put in place in respect of the incidence of cancer and it appears an approach akin to sleepwalking has been taken without any consideration for the seriousness of the issues involved.

I will revert to the central point regarding cervical cancer. As I pointed out in the earlier part of my contribution, great savings could have been made in other areas. While €10.6 million in tax breaks has been provided for the developers of private hospitals and private health care, the Minister is slashing this scheme for women that will cost between €10 million and €14 million. Surely an accounting exercise on the costing of such services would indicate clearly that, as one of the people to whom I referred observed, €1 spent on prevention is worth at least €2 spent on cure. Does the Minister accept the logic of this argument? The Minister should comment on this because it would be worth hearing her response.

Whatever the outcome of next Saturday's events outside this House will be, I hope the consequences will be that a different Minister for Health and Children will be in place thereafter. In particular, whatever about the Minister, a different policy should be in place in order that the people in this State will begin to get the public health service they deserve. Such a service has not been evident today.

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