Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I propose to share my time with Senator Ó Domhnaill. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. While I welcome the Minister of State, I am disappointed that the Minister for Health and Children is not present to deal with this question which seeks to determine her intentions regarding meeting her Northern counterpart, Mr. Michael McGimpsey, to discuss progress on the development of a satellite radiotherapy centre in the north west. I hope her absence from the Chamber is not an indication of her lack of support for such a centre.

In July 2005, the Minister of Health and Children, Deputy Harney, announced the Government's approval for a network of radiation oncology services in the Twenty-six Counties to be in place by 2011. According to recent reports, that the deadline has been moved to 2014 or 2015. As part of that announcement, the Minister also stated that the issue of a satellite centre in the north west would continue to be progressed as a joint initiative involving bilateral discussions at departmental and political levels. Two years later, cancer care in this country is still largely focused on Dublin, to the detriment of the health of those living in areas such as remote parts of Donegal and the north west.

Sinn Féin and others have consistently highlighted the need for the establishment of a satellite cancer care service in the north west, given that the disparity in access to cancer care service provision is most acutely felt by people in that region. This issue should be at the top of the agenda in terms of North-South co-operation. Very ill patients from the north west are being forced to undergo repeated and prolonged journeys to the only existing units in Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Galway. It is shameful and an absolute disgrace. It is intolerable that cancer patients are subject to long journeys and lengthy absences from home when the hospitals at Letterkenny or Altnagelvin could house a satellite radiation oncology unit to meet their holistic needs. The practical and political logic of all-Ireland co-operation on this, and many other issues, is undeniable.

Will the Government commit to progressing and developing the north-west satellite cancer centre as a matter of urgency? Cancer patients do not have the time to wait for political agendas which delay this process. This is about saving lives and making life considerably more comfortable for those cancer patients who must travel for hours every day to receive treatment. It is imperative that this unit offers all patients equal access to treatment, according to need. With the construction of such a unit, cancer patients will be treated near their homes, families and friends.

For too long the people of Donegal have been neglected by the political establishment. Enough is enough. People from the north-west region are being treated as second-class citizens owing to their geographic location. This can no longer be tolerated. A dedicated satellite radiotherapy unit in the north west is what the cancer patients of the region need. Sinn Féin repeats its call for those patients in Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Sligo and Leitrim to have the same rights as those in the rest of Ireland.

I welcome the decision announced yesterday that Letterkenny will be linked with the Sligo specialist cancer care unit. However, we must also recognise that two other parts of the puzzle are missing. The first is screening for breast, cervical and prostate cancers, and the second is radiation. A radiation oncology unit can be developed in the north west.

The Northern Ireland Assembly reconvened in May. The Government made a commitment two years ago that such a unit would be developed but there has been no discussion of the matter on a North-South basis. The people of Donegal demand action on this issue. I urge the Minister for Health and Children to meet her Northern counterpart, Mr. Michael McGimpsey, as a matter of urgency and put this issue on the agenda. My party's correspondence with Ministers in the Assembly in the Six Counties indicates that Mr. McGimpsey is open to discussing this issue and wants to place radiation oncology on top of the North-South agenda. I ask the Irish Government to give similar priority to this issue.