Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Smith. I call on the Minister for Health and Children to review and revise the cancer care strategy to ensure that cancer care services at Sligo General Hospital, including breast surgical and diagnostic procedures, are maintained and enhanced. There has been much comment on this issue in the media in recent days. The contributions on "Prime Time" last Thursday, Professor Drumm's remarks at last week's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, Professor Tom Keane's comments on "Morning Ireland" yesterday and the remarks made by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, last night all indicate that the HSE has absolutely no intention of taking on board the points raised in this House in the context of maintaining cancer care services, including surgical and diagnostic procedures, in the north west. This is totally and completely unacceptable. It is my sixth time to raise it in the House, while many colleagues from all parties have raised it in this House and the other House. It is extremely frustrating and disappointing.

It is an understatement to say that the entire population of the north-west region is disappointed. Approximately 250,000 people, in counties Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, west Cavan and parts of Mayo, live in a region that will, in effect, be left without an excellent service that has stood up to scrutiny. How would the HSE know about the service when, by its own admission, it has failed to undertake an audit of service, infrastructure or outcomes? The outcome of the service provided to 480 patients in Sligo was recently benchmarked against the outcome of the services covered by the surveillance, epidemiology and end-result, SEER, database, which is run by the US National Cancer Institute. The survey found that the outcomes in the north west were as good as, if not better than, those in the SEER database. The HSE has not undertaken such an audit of service because it is not interested in it. All it wants is to shut down certain services, thereby disenfranchising the entire north west. The HSE has not consulted the existing health professionals in the area, despite the fact that they provide a proven multidisciplinary approach, with triple assessment and all the necessary services and undertakings which are consistent with services of excellence. The HSE seems to have something against the north west. It is not remotely interested in the region.

I would like to rebut a number of points made by HSE staff in media interviews over recent days. When Professor Tom Keane was interviewed on "Morning Ireland" yesterday, he said that the debate on this decision is over. A number of consultants in the north west have told me that the debate never took place. The decision to promote eight centres of excellence was made by a cabal within the HSE, albeit based on the executive's so-called international best practice, by selectively choosing aspects of some reports and not others. I do not want anyone to suggest that I do not support the centres of excellence or that I am demanding services in every corner. It is wrong to disenfranchise a section of the country — 250,000 people — but the HSE has decided that this area should not be serviced. Professor Keane's suggestion that it is fantastic that the HSE intends to supply grants is an insult to the intelligence and integrity of the people of the north west of Ireland. I do not accept it.

Professor Keane also said that travel is not an issue. One need only ask people in their 60s, 70s and 80s about the distress caused by having to travel long distances to be diagnosed and treated to know that Professor Keane is wrong in this instance. It is simply inexcusable that we are allowing this to occur. It is clear from the definitive points that have been made over recent days — by the Minister, Deputy Harney, on television last night, Professor Keane on the radio yesterday, and Professor Drumm last week — that the direct intervention of the Taoiseach, through the Minister for Health and Children if necessary, is required if the constitutional right of the people of the north west of Ireland to share the same rights as anybody else in this country is to be upheld. I do not see how anybody, on the basis of any selective interpretation of the facts, can disenfranchise or dilute the level of human rights to which we are entitled under our Constitution. It is simply unfair and unacceptable.

I entered elected politics six years ago. I was born a Fianna Fáil supporter and I will always be one. My family has been associated with Fianna Fáil for many decades. I have never known it to be Fianna Fáil policy to seek to deprive the people of the north west of a service that is equitably available in every other part of the country. On the contrary, Fianna Fáil was established to ensure that the people of the north west get the same level of service and equity of access as every other part of the country. In my view, it has always sought to do that. Why and when did that change? I plead with the Minister of State to deliver the message loud and clear that I am demanding that the people of the north west receive the same quality of treatment as the other citizens of this great nation. The people of the region, who pay the same taxes and support the same politicians, of all parties and none, who come to this House to legislate and introduce measures on their behalf, deserve better. On behalf of the people of the north west, I appeal to the Minister of State to join my plea to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and Children to deliver levels of service to the people of the north-west region which are in line with those delivered within the Fianna Fáil tradition over the decades since the foundation of the State.