Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the announcement of the one-off €3 million in funding that will roll out this year. I have no doubt that East Galway and Midlands Cancer Support will attain full membership of that alliance. However, that does not guarantee it X amount out of that €3 million and therein lies the problem. I reiterate that this a is a cancer centre in the heart of Ballinasloe seeing, supporting and providing services, which would cost the HSE an arm and a leg to provide, to 130 people a week across eight counties on this island, but it is receiving €7,000 a year. I find it shameful that is what the centre is receiving when I think of the work it is doing, and the families and cancer patients it is supporting every day of the week. It is not good enough and the group deserves an awful lot more.

There are 16 community cancer centres under the alliance of community cancer support centres, including Ballinasloe, which will be included, as well as Roscommon Cancer Support. That €3 million needs to be an annual payment. In fact, we should see multi-annual funding for this. The Minister for Health needs to engage, along with the HSE, with each of these cancer centres, find out what money they need, what their level of service and demand is, and put money in place. There is no better way to spend €3 million than to give it to these cancer centres that really need this funding. I can guarantee that if the Minister of State looks at the cost to the HSE of providing more than 1,000 hours of treatments, transport to and from cancer treatment in UHG, as is provided in Ballinasloe, and more than 900 counselling sessions, it would cost the HSE a hell of a lot of money and an awful lot more than €7,000 of a grant to the centre in Ballinasloe.

I again ask that the Minister engages with the centre directly and asks the HSE to engage on its level of funding. We need to support these cancer centres. The Minister of State has given the figure of more than 200,000 people with cancer. It is an illness that is growing and we need to support those with it in every way we can. This means funding services properly and meeting demand.

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