David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State and his adviser to the House. I was glad to have heard the concluding remarks of what my colleague, Senator Feeney. They were extremely interesting and helpful. I am also glad I had an opportunity to glance through the Minister of State's speech. I apologise for not being here earlier to hear all the debate but I was detained elsewhere on a matter concerning the CIA rendition flights through Shannon Airport, which is a matter equally serious to that of the question of men's health.

As men, and I loosely describe myself as such, we are simply following in the wake of women. Women were alerted to the question of gender based illness much earlier than men and they were a lot wiser. They were also rather humorous about it. I remember Germaine Greer talking about the differences between the approach to health of men and women and suggesting that if men got a headache they got their agonised wife to rush them to hospital whereas with women, as she described it wonderfully, the dangly bits would have to fall off, shrivel or disappear before anybody paid them the slightest attention. Thanks to activists such as Germaine Greer and so on, that picture has radically changed and we now have a situation where the entire community is aware of the specific vulnerability of women to cervical cancer, breast cancer and so on.

Men are unlikely to suffer from cervical cancer but a small proportion of men suffer from breast cancer. I only discovered that recently when somebody I know reasonably well was taken to hospital seriously ill with breast cancer. I understand it is a 1% figure but the problem is very real for that 1% of people. This man found a lump on his chest and thought it was a big joke but he went into hospital and found that it was an early manifestation of a malignant tumour. Luckily, he was caught in time and successfully treated but he had to have the breast removed. It is obviously not such an awkward thing for a man as for a woman because the male breast is not as significant a part of physical anatomical attraction as it is for a woman but it is a very serious illness, and it came as a surprise to me to learn that it happened.

Senator Feeney was very gracious towards men. Most people, but not everybody, are drips when it comes to their own health because they are shy or ashamed to take their clothes off in front of the doctor, and God help us if it is a woman doctor. To allow these intimate little bits to be seen and examined, it is almost as if, in the words of the old Catholic theology, they were taking pleasure in it, which I seriously doubt. There is a reluctance or shyness, which is a culturally induced phenomenon, and for that reason I welcome what the Minister of State said about a health awareness programme and getting people into a condition of mind where they are prepared to recognise symptoms, examine themselves and take care. I speak from personal experience because I have a precancerous prostate condition. I receive medical check-ups every year.