Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

Not only will these units be for treatment, they will also be centres for learning, research, education and access to clinical trials, which is so important for patients suffering from cancer. They can now be put on therapies that might be much more beneficial to their outcome. Research has shown that outcomes are better as a result of treatment in centres that have multidisciplinary teams and those are the centres we are setting up.

It is a well known fact that people will live longer as a result of centres of excellence and being cared for in centres with multidisciplinary teams. There will be reactions in the communities that are losing out but it is important to note that while smaller communities or hospitals may lose out, the country as a whole will benefit from the announcement made today. We are putting in place a solid framework for cancer treatment which will lead to mortality figures decreasing. Systems currently are not working. They are too fragmented. We all know the outcomes where a multidisciplinary team is not in place. Mr. McCormack said today that if one can pass a hospital treating ten cancer cases a year and go on to the one treating 100 cancer cases a year, one's chances of survival and outcome result will be much better.

I am delighted that the HSE has appointed Professor Tom Keane to oversee the implementation of this framework. I am not picking on Senator Twomey but I thought he would have known that Professor Tom Keane is an Irishman returning from Canada. I do not know where he heard that he was from the United Kingdom. He is not English. I cannot find any article that stated he is English.