Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach does not get it. Almost 150,000 people have not been seen by the main cancer screening services in the last six months because of Covid. Over 12,400 more people are waiting for an inpatient day case endoscopy at the end of September compared to the same month last year. That is an increase of 56% in the number of people waiting, on top of the already bad situation we had. According to the Irish Cancer Society, social distancing has meant that capacity is reduced by 50% in hospitals. There are now 2,400 people on the urgent waiting list for endoscopy services, almost a quarter, 24% or 580 people of whom have been waiting more that three months. That is totally intolerable. The health services may be writing letters and inviting people back in but they are not coming in because it is a dysfunctional service and was previous to this as well. The Government can throw all the money it likes at it but it will not work.

We need 71 additional consultant oncologists over the next number of years. Have they been recruited? They will not come into the services because of the conditions there. I am very concerned, as are the people out there. We are listening and are supporting the situation but there has to be balance and there is no balance or logic to a lot of the decisions the Government has taken. Trying to get these people back into the hospitals to be seen is vital for their own health and that of their families as well. I repeat - I do not say this lightly - that hundreds of people will die because of this neglect.

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