Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question, which is on a matter that is very close to my own heart. The advancement of cancer services for patients in Ireland is a priority for me and the Government. The Deputy will be aware that we allocated €40 million to the national cancer strategy. That money has been put to very good use by our healthcare workers. We have hired nearly 400 additional staff with that funding, including more than 140 nurses and 40 consultants. We also allocated €30 million to new cancer drugs in that period. There has, therefore, been a very sizeable investment.

The Deputy's question looks to the future. It says that is great and important but asks what is next. This year, while budget 2024 did not include specific ring-fenced funding for the national cancer strategy, there will be significant investment in the progress of cancer services nonetheless. The Deputy will be aware that I recently allocated €20 million for new medicines for this year. We are also targeting an additional €10 million in savings from the drugs budget. The intention is to provide €30 million for new drugs this year. Typically, approximately one third of that will go to cancer drugs. That will be new investment in new treatments and medicines for patients.

We are also opening and staffing many more beds and we will hire more than 2,000 more healthcare professionals this year. We are hiring several hundred more consultants this year, a number of whom will be oncologists and other healthcare professionals working in oncology.

While there is no ring-fenced funding for the national cancer control programme, there will, nonetheless, be important and additional capacity and, therefore, services available to cancer patients this year through the budget.

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