Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I extend our sincere sympathies to our friend and colleague, the Clerk-Assistant of the Seanad, Bridget Doody, on the death of her brother Patrick, and also to his family and extended family.

The proposed cancer centre at University Hospital Galway will cater for more than 1 million people in the west and north west. It is part of the national development plan and it needs to be prioritised by Government. As Members, and certainly the Acting Leader, will be aware, six and a half years ago a new accident and emergency department was promised for University Hospital Galway. That was urgently required then and unfortunately it is still required. It has been bogged down in bureaucracy since. Plans, reviews and appointments have all delayed this much-needed project. There is concern and anxiety that the new cancer centre will follow a similar path and someone will be here talking about it in 2028. We cannot afford to let that happen and it must not happen.

Senator Chambers and I visited University Hospital Galway last week and met Professor Michael Kerin and colleagues to discuss this matter. We saw at first hand how the current facilities are simply not fit for purpose. Professor Kerin outlined the impact these poor facilities have on morale and on the staff. The west and the north west have the most disadvantaged and geographically dispersed population with a higher age than average and a higher incidence of cancer overall. To put it into context, there is an 86% recovery from lung and breast cancer on the eastern seaboard, but on the western seaboard that figure is below 80%. Unfortunately, because of the inadequate facilities the worst outcomes for cancer are seen in the west.

Cancer care is currently competing with emergency and elective healthcare. Time-sensitive cancer surgeries are routinely cancelled. Problems abound, including access to rapid access clinics, bed occupancy rates, lack of theatre capacity, cancer surgery waiting lists, emergency theatres utilised for cancer surgery out of necessity and long waiting lists for cancer consultation.

The HSE is currently considering submitting three separate planning applications in respect of University Hospital Galway. None of these applications includes the cancer centre and three applications provide an increase of only 100 beds. In my opinion as a Member of the Oireachtas, this is utter madness and obviously contradicts the national development plan which is the Government plan. A single planning application for the entire model 4 hospital, including the cancer centre, should be filed and the hospital should be directed accordingly.

The new cancer centre must be a priority for the Department of Health and for Government. Delays due to red tape and bureaucracy must be avoided. It will save lives and will make an enormous difference to the entire west and north-west region. The Acting Leader, Senator Kyne, has raised this issue over many years. I plead with him to invite the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to come to the House for an urgent debate on the priority of this issue.