Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news this morning that the Cabinet is to consider a new €2 billion cancer strategy programme. The plan, which will see between €1.5 billion and €2 billion spent on improved services and medicines over the next decade, comes with a warning that the number of cancer cases will almost double over the next 20 years. This is not news. We have known that an increase in patients presenting with cancer would be inevitable with our ageing population. Over the next 30 years, the number of people in Ireland over the age of 65 will double and the number over the age of 85 will quadruple. The percentage of deaths attributable to cancer has risen from 20% in the 1980s to over 30%. This percentage will continue to rise. The plan also stresses that as much as 40% of cancers are avoidable. That fact is important.

I have raised this matter in the House previously in the context of legislation relating to tobacco. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland and is linked to approximately 6,000 deaths per year. The estimated cost to the health care system of smoking is more than €500 million per annum yet there are still organisations under the remit of Departments that facilitate tobacco company investments. It beggars belief and flies in the face of the aim of a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025. I uncovered the fact that the Courts Service has invested more than €6 million of a trust of €1.6 billion in the tobacco industry. This includes moneys relating to wards of court and moneys awarded by the HSE to children due to medical misadventure. This needs to stop and the Courts Service needs to divest itself of these investments as a priority. I ask the Government to introduce legislation on this matter.

I move that leave be granted to introduce the Life Saving Equipment Bill, No. 11 on the Order Paper. This is a Bill to provide for a specific offence of interfering with life-saving equipment such as defibrillators and lifebuoys. I welcome Deputy Casey, who helped me draft this legislation, to the House. I will hold a briefing in the audio-visual room at 12.30 p.m. with members of the Community First Responders Network and Irish Water Safety. They will explain the role their organisations play in fund-raising, installation and training in the use of these vital pieces of equipment and, in particular, the knock-on effect of acts of vandalism and theft. I hope to see many Senators attending the briefing and I would be grateful for cross-party support on this issue.