Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I would like to make a brief preamble before I call for a debate. In line with my ongoing efforts to ensure that the people of the north west can enjoy equitably accessible cancer services, and in light of the revelations contained in the Health Information and Quality Authority's report on breast cancer services in Waterford, I submitted a freedom of information request to try to get my hands on the interim report on breast cancer services at University College Hospital, Galway, as well as a number of other support documents. I was amazed and flabbergasted to be told that my request had been declined. It is important for me to outline a couple of things. I ask the House to indulge me. I asked for the interim report on the basis that all the cancer needs of the people of the north west are supposed to be catered for at the centre in Galway. I received a letter telling me that no meetings concerning the interim report had taken place between University College Hospital, Galway, and the Health Information and Quality Authority up to the date of my freedom of information request. I found that shocking in the extreme. I was also informed that the hospital and its staff are "endeavouring" and "motivated" to meet the national standards for symptomatic breast disease. I took the use of the words "motivated" and "endeavouring" to mean that, by definition, the hospital is not achieving those standards at the moment. The Health Information and Quality Authority has refused to validate the report on the self-assessment audits that have been carried out at Sligo General Hospital. If it did, it might see that the standards at the hospital are particularly high and that the hospital is therefore in a position to cater for the needs of the north-west region. However, the authority is seeking to transfer services to a hospital that is "endeavouring" and "motivated" to achieve the national standards. As we saw in the memo that was leaked two weeks ago, the management of the hospital in question is not in a position to meet its obligations under the national cancer control programme. In that context, I am calling for two urgent debates. The first debate should relate to the ineptitude of the HSE, which continues to pursue the implementation of the national cancer control programme in an authoritarian and dictatorial manner that discriminates against the people of the north-west region. I also request a debate on the Freedom of Information Act to examine the abuses that are being carried out because this particular response did not come back within the appropriate time. It would take too long to go into all of what it states but it is a basic admission that they were afraid that the information might help me and the people of the north west in the pursuit of equality and as a result I was not given the information.