John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and I welcome the speech by the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley. I agree with much of his speech, but I would like to make a couple of points.

Senator Cummins spoke about Waterford Regional Hospital and radiotherapy facilities in the south east. The Minister of State also referred to this in his remarks, but even after those comments and the report of the national strategy for cancer control, the policy for the provision of radiotherapy treatment facilities in the south east is still very unclear. People suffering from cancer are obviously very ill, but to compound their difficulties, trauma and illness, they must travel to Dublin to receive treatment. It is completely inappropriate that they be subjected to this extra trauma at such a distressing time in their lives. It should not be happening at a time when we seem to have the requisite amount of funding to solve this situation. I urge the Department of Health and Children to do everything possible to ensure full radiotherapy facilities for the south-east region. Everyone in this House has had a family member or friend affected at some stage. The treatment facilities in large parts of the country are still substandard and that is not acceptable. Under this national cancer control strategy, I hope we can work towards a situation where people all over the country can expect a minimum standard of service.

In his opening remarks, the Minister of State referred to the fact that the poor cancer survival rates in this country may be due in part to our fragmented cancer services. That is an understatement. We need to do our utmost to improve those services. Senator Cummins spoke about the BreastCheck programme, which has been rolled out in parts of the country. It is stated that it has been rolled out in the south-east region, but there are areas in the region that are not covered, such as Waterford and south Kilkenny. There are also problems with screening for other types of cancer, including types of cancer common to men. The Government has not yet embarked on a programme of rolling out a screening scheme across the country for those cancers. We should be aiming at that for the future.

The Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, spoke about the Tánaiste's efforts to control the use of sunbeds. I commend her for trying to curtail their use by children. I was in a house in my own area recently and was shocked to find a child under the age of 16 on a sunbed. There is a direct link between some forms of skin cancer and the over-use of sunbeds, especially by children under 16.

If we are serious about implementing the strategy and decreasing the number of those who suffer from cancer, we need to ensure that we have a proper screening programme and that facilities for treatment are available as uniformly as possible. We cannot provide radiotherapy services at every crossroads, but they should be available in major regional centres. As the regional hospital in the south-east region, I am making the case for Waterford Regional Hospital. People in my area who are affected by cancer should be able to get the treatment in the region, rather than facing a six-hour round trip to and from Dublin.