Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I want to be associated with the Ceann Comhairle's remarks of compliments and congratulations to the team here at the convention centre and, indeed, to the chairman of the board, an tUasal Uí Dhubhuir ón Bóthar Leathan in Tipperary. I compliment them and wish them well for the future.

I am quite concerned about the answers the Taoiseach has given to Deputy Tóibín. More than 450 cancer cases and 1,600 pre-cancer cases are likely to go undetected during the pause in screening during Covid but we have to deal with this. The Taoiseach stated he gets the point and he understands but I do not think he does. I am calling on his Government to sort this out urgently because it is not good enough for the people. It may well take years to comprehend fully the misdiagnoses and the hundreds of people who will have died due to neglect and not being seen in time. I do not say that lightly. Hundreds of people would have got life sentences. Professor John Crown, a former Seanadóir whom I have great respect for, has said that treatment delayed is treatment denied. The old adage was that justice delayed is justice denied. I salute the professor and his colleagues. Treatment delayed is treatment denied. It is shocking that cancers can be growing inside people and they are not aware of it. They are waiting and they might have attended their GPs. They are nervous and they are worried. The Government must swiftly address this problem. Pre-Covid-19 we were not meeting anything like the targets we had. We had targets of 95% for new patients attending rapid access breast, lung and prostate cancer clinics within the recommended timeframe - this is pre-Covid. Those are the HSE's own targets. Last year, however, the rate was only 71%. We were missing 24% of people in any case before Covid hit. It is alarming and it has to be dealt with.

Similarly, early intervention systematic breast disease clinics for urgent breast cancer patients and rapid-access clinics for prostate cancer patients were both 26% below the HSE target in 2019. The HSE, therefore, was not fit for purpose even before Covid hit and it certainly is not now. I ask the Taoiseach really to deal with this. There is no point in him telling Deputy Tóibín and myself he knows, he is aware and that we are going to catch up and about all the letters that have been sent out inviting people in. People are scared to go in now because the Taoiseach and RTÉ have frightened the life out of them by telling them morning, noon and night that they should cocoon and stay at home. People who want to go cannot go. They get the letters but they may not respond because they are so worried about going anywhere, especially elderly people. It is time that there was a balance in the Government's attitude to Covid and to the rest of the health service and to the economy, people's mental health, cancer diagnoses - you name it. It was already accepted internationally that we are way behind and under-resourced in our health system and especially in our cancer care treatments. Many recent graduates have looked outside the public service for jobs because of pay and conditions. We need to support them. We are short 500 consultants and they must be recruited. The Government needs to catch up quickly here. I do not believe that the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, or his Department are capable of doing this. We are slipping backwards and hundreds of people will lose their lives as a result; not one but hundreds or maybe even thousands.

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