Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

Indeed, it does not. However, one does not believe that when one is 17, 18 or 21 years of age. When one starts to see wrinkles at the age of 32 years, one might start to think about it. The most powerful message to a smoker is received when someone he or she knows dies. Young people should be brought to places like St. James's Hospital to see people with emphysema dying from cigarette smoking in order that they make the connection between smoking and its end results. It is hard to get the message across to young people but great work is being done by groups such as ASH. Nonetheless, more needs to be done to de-glamourise cigarettes and alcohol. Merely printing "smoking kills" on the side of cigarette packets is not enough. We need to look at the bigger picture.

I will leave the detail of the issue of radiotherapy services in the Mid-Western Health Board area to Senator Finucane because he is so eloquent on the issue. As a public representative in the area, I receive regular correspondence on the issue from health board officials at the planning end, practitioners and senior medical personnel to tell me we should have radiotherapy services there. Therefore, if the Minister of State accuses me of localism in referring to the mid-western region, he is also accusing the entire medical infrastructure of the area. I am curious to hear his response to this.