Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

Eight women died in County Donegal last year from cervical cancer out of a total national figure of 81. I will outline the difficulty I have explaining this decision to parents, particularly mothers. When a person leaves Donegal for Dublin they usually travel by car or bus. There is no train service from Donegal to Dublin. Take the example of a woman suffering from cervical cancer who is travelling by bus to Dublin. The bus will leave Letterkenny, cross the bridge at Lifford and travel to Strabane. When it reaches Strabane the woman can look into the lit up houses if it is the morning or late at night. The question that woman will ask as she travels from Strabane, through Omagh and into Aughnacloy is: "Why will the 12 year old daughters on these roads be entitled to a vaccination procedure, while my 12 year old daughter living in Donegal will not?"

On reaching Emyvale after crossing the Border, she is back in the country that is reactive, not progressive, has no forward vision, does not wish to undertake forward planning and has a stark history of making mistakes and looking at short-term targets. This is a short-term target. It is a disaster. I commend my colleague, Deputy Reilly, for proposing this motion tonight. It is a microcosm of where we are as a country and where we are as a nation. It is a microcosm of all the ills in this country. One need only consider Limerick. The people in Limerick are not different from the people in Donegal. There is a lack of intervention and a lack of building capacity in terms of intervention. Intervention is key, be it in health, the community or in education.

This country is now faced with cutbacks in all areas. School principals are listing the activities that can no longer take place in secondary schools, such as extra-curricular activities, sports and out-of-school activities. The intervention that was taking place is no longer available. Similarly, there is the situation with the health service, where lives could be saved. I am aware that the Minister personally has a genuine interest in saving lives, and she gets credit for that. However, as a Minister she fails to have the courage to take on a bureaucracy and administration that could make savings of €10 million. The people of Ireland will judge the Minister on her courage in taking on the administration.

We must focus on prevention. Following the release of another study on prostate cancer, Rory Hafford this week produced a document which states that 500 to 600 lives could be saved. We need intervention and a U-turn on this issue. I implore the Minister to do it tonight.

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