Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

I recall a front page article that appeared in The Connacht Tribune last September, in which Deputy Ulick Burke decried the proposed removal of breast cancer surgery from Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe to University College Hospital, Galway, only 40 miles away. In his defence of the standard of breast cancer surgery available at Portiuncula, he indicated that 11 breast cancer operations were carried out there last year. How could Deputy Ulick Burke believe for a moment that any hospital with such a low level of surgery activity could possibly reach the high standards we are striving to set across the country? Such reckless politicising of health service issues discredits us all as politicians and will make the job of massively reforming our health service even more difficult.

The recent OECD report on cancer services and survival rates indicates that we have yet some distance to travel to reach the standards of a world class health service. However it makes some positive comments on our cancer services, one of which refers to the 6.7% increase in survival rates from 1999 to 2004. This increase puts us well up there in the OECD league table in making progress on cancer care and I know the Minister, Deputy Harney, is intent on building on that success.

The OECD report, Health at a Glance, also highlights the progress we are making, in particular on health funding. Ireland's health spending per capita is $2,926, which is above the OECD average of $2,759. Between 1995 and 2005 Ireland had an annual average growth rate in health expenditure per capita of 7.2%, the third highest behind Luxembourg and Korea and ahead of the OECD average of 4%.

In an article in The Irish Times last year, the former Taoiseach, Mr. Garret FitzGerald, highlighted the progress we are making as a nation. He described our increase in life expectancy during the period 1999 to 2005 as a remarkable phenomenon that had largely gone unnoticed. Ireland has the seventh highest life expectancy in the EU 27.