John Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to express some views in the debate here today. We must accept that the Minister has endeavoured to provide the best possible care to people throughout the country. Nothing is being done from sinister motives or to attack or downgrade any hospital. I come from an area that, along with the people of Donegal, has probably the greatest gripe regarding the fact that there is no local service available.

The first thing to which any of us looks when a member of our families or our friends become sick is where the best possible diagnostic care and treatment can take place. This is why it is accepted across the House that centres of excellence are probably the best possible way of moving forward with regard to cancer treatment.

I do not know how many people here heard the professor whom we are not supposed to name speak on the radio yesterday morning. He made it very clear that as far as he was concerned, the expenditure here was on a par with anywhere else in the world with regard to cancer care. That was something we were all probably glad to hear. Nobody can say that we are underspending or that the health service here is underspending when it comes to cancer care, despite all the attacks on it.