Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have two points to make. The first relates to the changes to home quarantining. Those changes will be meaningless unless there is some element of supervision. At a minimum, what should be done is a linking up of the passenger locator form with the PCR test result, because we simply do not know what is happening, whether people are getting tested or what test results are.

My second point is about the Irish Cancer Society, which is warning very clearly that we are facing a tsunami of undiagnosed and, in some instances, advanced cancer cases. The Irish Cancer Society is looking for a number of things to be done. It wants leadership on the cancer strategy, which must be updated. We require more consultants working in this area and more theatre time and beds. The society says that, at the very minimum, there should be a public awareness campaign because it is conscious of the fact that people have, in the main, been reticent about seeing their GPs during Covid. People have been nervous about doing so. GPs are reporting that patients are not coming to see them with concerns about lumps, pains or cancer concerns. The Irish Cancer Society is asking that a clear public awareness campaign be put into operation to advise people that if they have particular concerns, they should go to their GP as soon as possible. Does the Taoiseach support this?

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