David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State and I soldiered together and campaigned in respect of many local issues in Waterford. It is a bit surreal to see her sitting across the floor now and holding ministerial office. I take this, my first opportunity in the Chamber at least, to commend her on her appointment and to wish her well.

It is very telling that everybody who spoke tonight referred either to direct personal experience of cancer or to the experience of a family member. This shows the stark reality that cancer is a major scourge we all have to contend with and do our best to deal with. In crafting this motion and in my presentation to the media in recent days, I was very careful not to overstate the case. It is very important for us to be factual and to present the arguments in a very clear, intelligent and honest way. It is also important that we do not understate the case. Unfortunately, the reality is that cancer care has been chronically underfunded for far too long. I agree with what the Leas-Cheann Comhairle said earlier. I do not want to see a return to pre-Covid cancer levels. I want us to go beyond that and to get better and sharper at what we do.

I want to avail of this opportunity and commend a number of people and organisations. I commend the Irish Cancer Society. I commend to the Minister of State its pre-budget submission, which very clearly sets out the challenges and opportunities for cancer patients if we get it right. If we make the right investments, it sets out very clearly the improvements that can be made. I also commend the document I crafted on the investments which are necessary and the timeframes we need to adhere to if we are to give people the opportunities they need.

Furthermore, I wish to commend Mr. John Wall, a cancer patient and someone who is dealing with the disease. He has been a very strong advocate for screening services and for people to come forward and get tested. There are many people like him who have been campaigning to encourage people to go to their GPs and get tested. Screening plays a vital part in that. They are also calling for medical cards for all terminally ill patients. That issue should also be put on the floor of the Dáil today. It was a promise made by the Minister of State's party. There is some commitment in the programme for Government and we want to see it delivered.

I am a bit concerned about the Minister for Health's contribution to the debate. As previous speakers indicated, the Minister talked about the reopening of screening services. However, there is an incredible lack of detail about how this will happen. For example, the Minister stated, "It is projected that BreastCheck will resume in the coming weeks". He did not say which week, at what capacity or how many people will be screened. In talking about CervicalCheck he said, "CervicalCheck aims to have issued all invitations by spring 2021" to deal with the backlog. That is on the optimistic side. He also said that BowelScreen would operate at only 50% capacity, which is not acceptable. The Minister went on to say that we may not and we do not need any additional funding in respect of screening. I do not believe that for a second because if we have any chance of keeping up, never mind catching up, we will need to have more staffing, more physical space and more laboratory space. To say that is not a reality is accepting that we will have a greater build-up and more people waiting for screening and for treatment.

The Minister also talked about €3.5 million in new development funding. However, he failed to point out that €45 million is needed. He said that to me privately before making his contribution. He said he wants more money and cannot understand why it was not made available.

In his contribution, the Minister was actually talking about and giving a context to what the previous Government did. He was not even part of that Government. I would have preferred to hear about what he is going to do as the new Minister for Health and about his new ideas and the energy he wants to bring to dealing with this matter rather than getting a restatement of what we already know, namely, that the record of the previous Government reads like a litany of failure. I accept that there were successes in some areas but the fact is that the previous Government failed to meet almost all of its targets under the national cancer strategy. The bottom line is that we can, should and must do better to protect citizens from the scourge of cancer.

I commend the motion to the House. I hope the Government will have a rethink and support the motion rather than proceeding with its amendment.

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