John Crown (Independent)

I wish to raise a little "Is féidir linn" success story which the Leader could forward to the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for medical research to see how it could be developed. Recently, the All Ireland Co-operative Oncology Research Group, ICORG, celebrated its twelfth anniversary. It was founded at a time when Ireland, uniquely for a western country, had no national structure for organised national cancer clinical trials. These trials of new treatments for patients have been shown to advance treatment for cancer, make new treatments available at an earlier stage in the development of the drugs and, generally, raise standards in the health services. They are an index of quality in a health service.

Since its humble beginning when there were only five cancer specialists in the country, ICORG has had a spectacular growth, now having 350 members from medical, surgical, radiation and oncology communities in addition to cancer nurses and scientists. It has brought millions of euro worth of free treatment drugs into the country while establishing a large national network which has provided 100 jobs for skilled researchers in the clinical support area. More importantly, it has resulted in a net increase of funds coming into the country from major international pharmaceutical companies, research charities and other international research groups. It also led to the development of local affiliates of major international research companies which previously only had sales forces based in Ireland.

As a result, Ireland now punches way above its weight in cancer clinical trials. In the United States, 3% of patients diagnosed with cancer join such trials. In Ireland, in 2009 over 30% of patients diagnosed with breast cancer were enrolled on trials. Two drugs, Glivec and Herceptin, which have been shown to have major survival prolongation impact for patients with leukaemia and breast cancer, respectively, became available to cancer patients in this country substantially earlier than they were for patients in other countries, due to the efforts and success of ICORG in attracting clinical trials at an earlier stage. ICORG, of which I humbly admit I was the co-founder, is now leading many international studies and is rightly proud of what it has achieved.

Will the Leader ask the relevant Ministers if they would consider a voluntary redeployment of those in officialdom in the health system who have been designated potential candidates for redundancy as a result of the perception of an excess of some people in official capacities following the merger of the health boards into the Health Service Executive? I do not believe we can ethically take people who were guaranteed permanent and pensionable jobs and force them into redundancy. In a time of national emergency, it strikes me that people who have both given service and have the privilege of permanent and pensionable jobs should be used to the best advantage of the taxpayer.

I request that the Leader ask the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, and the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Sherlock, if it might be possible to consider the introduction of some form of voluntary redeployment scheme. If we had access to the skills of an additional five, eight or ten people - these individuals, who might otherwise be looking down the barrel at some type of redundancy, could be redeployed from official capacities in the Health Service Executive - in the clinical trial support area, we could increase both the number of studies that are carried out and the number of new drugs that could be introduced. In addition, we could bring millions of extra euro worth of free drugs into the health service and the economy.