Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator O'Reilly for raising this matter. Successful national cancer strategies have delivered continuing improvement in outcomes in Irish cancer patients. The benefit of our strategic approach cancer control is shown by the improvement in the number of patients living after having received a cancer diagnosis: more than 200,000 people now compared with 150,000 when the strategy was brought to Government in 2017.

Significant funding has been provided to cancer services over a number of years. In budget 2025, €23 million was secured for the national cancer strategy, including funding for the expansion of cancer screening and community cancer support centres. This will mean that in excess of €105 million will have been invested in the strategy since 2017, which will have enabled the recruitment of more than 670 staff to our national cancer services.

Capital funding of more than €140 million has been used to provide state-of-the-art radiation oncology facilities in Galway and Cork, to update chemotherapy wards and lab facilities, and to invest in the new national cervical screening laboratory. The HSE national cancer control programme, NCCP, has set a target of 90% of patients commencing radiotherapy treatment within 15 working days of being deemed ready to treat by a radiation oncologist. In 2024, the national compliance with this target was 73%. In January 2025, the most recently available data indicated that the national compliance rate has risen to 81%. The NCCP advises that a range of factors can impact the HSE's ability to reach the target, including, in particular, challenges in the radiotherapy workforce.

Staff shortages were actively addressed in March of this year. The shortfall was between 14% and 22% compared with a shortfall of 30% at the same time last year. A national radiation therapist review report was completed in 2024 and made 16 recommendations. These recommendations are intended to support and enhance the radiation therapy profession. Funding was allocated in 2025 to support actions arising from the review. This includes funding for additional staff and six advance practice posts for radiation therapy. Additional training places are being made available and professional registration requirements have been reviewed to bring Ireland into line with international comparators.

The HSE recognises the importance of timely access to treatment. Where deemed clinically necessary, patients have been referred to private service providers. Investment of around €10 million per year is spent on outsourcing radiotherapy appointments to ensure timely treatment. Additional measures to improve waiting times and patient outcomes also include the clinical implementation of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy, SABR, and stereotactic radiosurgery, SRS. These treatments have the benefit of being delivered in fewer sessions compared with conventional radiotherapy.

The Government remains fully committed to continued implementation of the national cancer strategy and improving radiation therapy capacity to ensure timely treatments for patients. This will build on the progress already made in improving survivorship and the quality of life for cancer patients.