Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Today, 480 people will be diagnosed with cancer and 24 people will die of cancer. It is one of the biggest threats to human life in this State. Timely diagnosis can and will make all the difference for many people. The Irish Cancer Society says that it is worried that many people have cancer and do not know it. This will impact on their outcomes. The Marie Keating Foundation anticipates a tsunami of cancer diagnoses. Perhaps the figures the Minister has just given show that those delayed cancer diagnoses are starting to come into the system. Research that we in Aontú recently carried out showed that there is a significant drop in the number of patients who are starting anti-cancer therapy treatments. In 2019, 8,252 patients started chemotherapy, hormonal treatments or immunotherapy. In 2020, this figure had decreased to 7,683. So far in 2021, it is down to 5,703. The numbers attending BreastCheck, BowelScreen, CervicalCheck, skin cancer clinics, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are all down. We need extra capacity to be put in to deal with this right now.

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