Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House. I commend Senators MacSharry and Crown for introducing this Bill. Senator MacSharry is well aware of the importance of cancer, having fought the fight in his own family in Sligo for many years. Many families have been affected by cancer and we all know someone who has suffered with the disease. The Bill is given added weight by the inclusion of Senator Crown's name on it because there is no-one in this building who is more qualified to discuss cancer treatment than him.

The response we have received today from the officials in the Department is disgraceful. I draw particular attention to the following:

Many factors shape decisions around access to therapeutic interventions. These include benefit to patients, quality of evidence, existence of alternatives, treatment duration, potential to save or prolong lives, total population of patients affected and cost to the system. These factors are not part of the EMA evaluation.

As far as I am concerned, that is not correct.

This Bill is timely in that it proposes to place access to cancer treatment drugs on a statutory footing. Senators will be aware of the instance where, through the intervention of Senator Crown and others, a cancer drug was made available to a patient, but only because the case was highlighted in the media, on "Liveline" and elsewhere. If that is the way the health service is run then it is very easy to see why it is not working properly. Cancer treatment drugs should not be made available just because a Senator and media personalities highlight certain cases and the Government running its cancer services on such a basis is not acceptable. This Bill attempts to make the provision of cancer drugs more efficient and to set it within parameters than anyone can follow. The guidelines laid down would mean that patients who need a particular treatment would get it. To see a patient who badly needs a drug getting it only because of the intervention of a Senator who, in a personal capacity, contacted the media rather than on the basis of legislation such as the Bill before us is appalling. The fact that a media campaign resulted in a patient receiving the treatment required is an illustration of crisis management at its worst. This Bill is an attempt to regularise the system and make sure that people who need it get the treatment required.

I have read some of the contributions to this debate but I am no expert in this area. However, when someone of the ability of Senator Crown puts his weight behind the Bill and the Government dismisses it with contempt, it is hard to understand. The response to the Bill was written by people who would not be as qualified as Senator Crown.

I was a member of the last Seanad, when Senator MacSharry argued the case for retaining cancer treatment services in Sligo. He went against his own party time and again on the issue and spoke out on it, to his own detriment at times. He had the courage of his convictions. Access to cancer treatment is something he believes in strongly. For people to come into this House and read, verbatim, the reply approved by Dr. Susan O'Reilly, which gives a long and sometimes inaccurate rejection of the Bill ---