Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I find some of the rhetoric here extraordinary. I take it Deputy Tóibín realises we are in a global pandemic. No Government premeditatedly decides to reduce cancer services. The Deputy should get bloody well realistic. Excuse me, I should not use the word "bloody" but I genuinely think it is a bit much. We want to provide the maximum level of cancer services. There have been backlogs because we are in the middle of a global pandemic, which has had a terrible impact on front-line healthcare services. The national cancer control programme has a schedule for the resumption of cancer services. It is very important. We want to get back to 100% of 2019 levels and we are making progress in some respects in doing that. Part of the reason for the very slow reopening announced yesterday was to facilitate a resumption of services in healthcare. We have provided the resourcing but there have been challenges because of Covid-19. That is obvious.

The Deputy is entitled to make comments but I have to respond. Fair is fair here; no one is reducing cancer services in a premeditated way.

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