Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Fine Gael Senators for introducing this motion into the Seanad Chamber. In particular, I welcome Ms Power and others from the Irish Cancer Society who are here in recognition of the enormous work they do and the contribution they make. I could say there is nothing else to say other than these are the things we need to see.

Many of us in this House and this building have been affected by cancer. I do not think there is a single person in Ireland who has not been affected by it. We see that in the figures for the number of people who are likely to develop cancer in their lifetime. I note in particular the call for the expansion of the age ranges for cancer screening programmes. We all know cancer screening programmes are essential for early diagnosis and intervention. Therefore, we need to ensure these screening programmes are properly funded and resourced and are reaching the appropriate and correct age brackets.

The lung cancer screening programme is something I have spoken about on numerous occasions in this Chamber and at the Joint Committee on Health. We currently do not have a national lung cancer screening programme. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has announced a trial programme for lung cancer screening and I hope we will see the success of that. Ideally, lung cancer screening programmes would be similar to BreastCheck or CervicalCheck in that they would be accessible and readily available. The data from the National Cancer Registry Ireland report indicates that instances of lung cancers are higher in more deprived areas. We have to act in light of this and give people a fair chance. We might look at the lung cancer screening programme that has been rolled out or trialled by the NHS in Manchester and Liverpool. It is like mobile testing. It is something we are familiar with in terms of the mobile testing units that go around testing for breast cancer. With lung cancer it would be a lot more specific in that a person would be identified by his or her GP as someone who would be at risk of it, for instance, someone who has smoked.

I have said it before and I will say it again: if we had had lung cancer screening, my dad would probably still be here today because, by the time his lung cancer was picked up, it was far too late. It was stage 4. It had spread all through his body, yet there was not a single symptom for that lung cancer. He would have been a prime suspect, however. Even though he gave up smoking in the 1990s, he would have been someone who would have been on the radar, who perhaps could have had that lung cancer screening and who could possibly still be here with us today.

We know lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Ireland and is very treatable if caught early. It is typically diagnosed at a very late stage in Ireland. Two out of every three lung cancers are diagnosed at stage 3 or 4. It does not have to be that way. Very often with lung cancer, as was the case with my dad, it is when people are in an accident and emergency department or they get a completely innocuous unrelated procedure, such as an X-ray, that it is caught. Someone might go into the accident and emergency department because they have a cough that just has not gone away and the cancer is at a much later stage.

I am particularly passionate about lung cancer screening programmes. I will quote Mr Gerard Fitzmaurice, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Trinity St. James's Cancer Institute:

The vast majority who have lung cancer, by the time they present, and have symptoms, it has already spread or metastasised or become too advanced to have an opportunity to have a treatment with a means of curing them. One of the biggest focuses for everyone who is looking after lung cancer patients is how we can try and find the patients who have lung cancer earlier.

This is something about which I am very passionate. I would love to see that screening rolled out. The evidence from the NHS shows it is a worthwhile investment. It catches lung cancer at an earlier stage. With every cancer, the earlier it is caught, the better the outcome. I would also like to see the roll-out of screening programmes for prostate and gastric cancers. Not every cancer can be screened for. Maybe some day science will develop so that we will be able to screen for every single cancer, and that will be an entirely different world. However, if there are cancers we can screen for, and we have had great success with breast, cervical and bowel cancer, then I would love to see us here in Ireland roll out a meaningful campaign for the cancers that can be screened for.We know Ireland's two-tier health system has a severe impact on the most disadvantaged in society. It is the same story here. If you can pay, you can have access to screening services and early intervention and care, and if you cannot, it can sometimes feel like very tough luck. Almost every family in the country has been affected by cancer but the reality is that screening can save lives.

I refer very briefly to a report from the European Cancer Organisation and the Irish Cancer Society which highlights the inequality that continues to have an effect on people in the least well-off areas. Reference has been made to that in the debate. In the least well-off areas there is a greater risk of dying from the disease. One of the key phrases used is that cancer patients face a postcode lottery, with survival rates being lower in poorer areas. We simply cannot have a society where that continues to be the case.

I will speak very briefly about the funding of the national cancer strategy, which has somewhat stood still since 2017. That means we have potentially gone backwards in some key areas and we need more investment just for the national cancer strategy to stand still. We need to see the €20 million investment in the national cancer strategy but there are lots of other areas the Government must address. There is great potential for us to tackle cancer, whether it is through investment in the national cancer strategy or rolling out meaningful screening programmes. We can and must do better in providing cancer care and funding for national cancer services. Once again, I thank the Fine Gael Senators for bringing forward this important motion.