David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for her response in reiterating the Government's commitment to palliative care, which is very important. The funding could and must be provided for. Despite the downturn, there is still money available for the Government and cancer care and provision of cancer treatment services is very important. A private facility has been built in Waterford, the Whitfield Clinic, which provides some form of radiotherapy. It is important in terms of international best practice that all modalities of treatment be provided on one site. For this to happen we need an oncology unit and the 20-bed palliative care unit.

As the Minister of State indicated, the local hospice movement has campaigned and raised funds for this project. I know the HSE is designing a brief now so I hope that when it is submitted, it will have the Department's full attention. I hope that at some point the Government will be in a position to allocate capital funding to deliver on this very important project.