Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday, the head of our national screening service, Fiona Murphy, posted the following words:

Amazing to be part of this. I never thought when I started in healthcare a long time ago that it would be possible to eliminate a cancer, especially one that was increasing. Now we will see it in our lifetime. Remarkable.

Kim, a patient advocate, described how much it meant to her to be at the event, having had cervical cancer herself. She said: "To see the progress that’s being made in eliminating this cruel disease is really something.” On Friday morning last, clinicians and patient advocates met to launch our roadmap to eliminate cervical cancer. We are only the fourth country in the world to announce such an ambitious target. The launch is so significant and positive, yet I did not see a single comment from senior figures in Sinn Féin to mark this momentous day. In contrast, the Sinn Féin motion talks about throwing in the towel. We have just heard Deputy Doherty talk about throwing in the towel. Throwing in the towel is collapsing the Northern Ireland Assembly in the face of Brexit nearly seven years ago.

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