Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

There were many cutbacks in the recent budget and they affected all areas, including agriculture, health, social welfare and education. There were cutbacks across the board. This will cause hardship, suffering, loss of income and many types of discomfort. Of all the cutbacks that have been announced, however, this will cause devastation to families in the years ahead. It is probably the harshest cut of all. I do not like to use the term "merciless" but it is a merciless cut. I have no wish to use the term with regard to the Minister but that is how I see it.

I recall watching the television at home last August when it was announced that this immunisation programme against a particular form of cancer was to be rolled out nationally. I was delighted. Furthermore, being a lay person where medicine is concerned, I was delighted that at last there was a vaccine available against one form of cancer. I considered it a great medical breakthrough. If administered in 2009, as the Minister promised, it would save lives in the future. Each year 70 to 80 young women die of cervical cancer in this country. Consider the devastation such deaths leave in their wake. Many of them are young mothers with young children still at school. Consider the devastation visited on a family when a mother dies. There is devastation when a parent dies but it is particularly hard when a mother dies. It is unbelievable when somebody is left without their mother. Anybody who has experienced it, and there are many, knows how cruel and inhumane it is.

This vaccination programme was announced and everybody was looking forward to it. It was a great breakthrough. Now, however, it has been withdrawn, just to save less than €10 million per annum out of a budget of €16 billion. I have been a Member of this House for many years and I never had the privilege of being a Minister or Minister of State but I can guarantee that if I, a lay person who did some economics many years ago in university, had a half hour with the Health Service Executive, I would find savings of €10 million. It is certainly not beyond the competence of the Minister and the people in the HSE to achieve savings and proceed with the roll-out of this vaccine.

We will not see the results of this today or next year but in ten or 20 years, when few of us will still be Members of this House. Young mothers will make the ultimate sacrifice as a result of the vaccine not being made available to them. I ask the Minister to seriously re-examine this decision. We have addressed farmers' meetings, meetings on education and other meetings but this is a core issue. For that reason I appeal to you, a Thánaiste——

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