Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Cullinane on tabling the motion. It is timely and important. The CervicalCheck scandal and now Covid-19 with the suspension of screening programmes have brought cancer care in Ireland into focus again. I am sure others will address the important issues of delayed and missed diagnoses and the unnecessary pain and hurt this causes. Others will mention the poor outcomes we experience in Ireland. Five year survival rates for ovarian, colon and rectal cancers lag considerably behind other wealthy western countries.

I want to focus my comments on the essential role of medical scientists in cancer care, screening, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring.

As it applies to Covid-19 testing, a headline in a national newspaper two days ago read, "Overworked medical scientists warn of burnout as testing requirements increase." The same could be said at any stage in recent years of the general services that medical scientists are expected to perform, many of which relate to delivery of cancer care. This is a proud profession that feels underappreciated and undervalued. I know this myself because I worked as a medical scientist for a number of years, starting in 2003. The representative bodies - the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine and the profession's union, the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association - have, in my experience, stated their concerns loudly over two decades. We should be very proud of this profession, and I am sure the Minister is. We produce fantastic graduates, the best in Europe. There is a competition every year and we win it consistently. All those in the profession are educated to degree level, most have master's degrees, many have multiple master's degrees and many have PhDs. Increasingly, they are taking on FRCPath and MRCPath. We do not train enough medical scientists. Of those we train, 25% emigrate or go into industry. Those who stay to work in the Irish public health system are frustrated by the lack of recognition or of career progression opportunities. They have lived with pay inequality for decades, and that needs to be addressed.

The Minister and I have spoken privately about this before. I know he is interested in the opportunity there is. I believe there is a clear win for the Government in this. I ask the Minister for Health and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to take the opportunity to meet representatives of medical scientists. They have a great opportunity to contribute significantly more than they are being asked to contribute. I think there is a win there for the Government and I would appreciate if the Minister took up that proposal.

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