Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)

I also pay my respects to the victims of Srebrenica and their families. It is particularly difficult to stand for a minute's silence when we know there is also a genocide happening in Gaza. While standing I was asking myself what day we will be standing to commemorate all the Palestinians who have been slaughtered.

This week, the Journal Investigates team published figures after analysing the wait time for people who had been diagnosed with cancer from diagnosis to the start of their treatment. The target of the national cancer control programme is to start treatment in 90% of cases within 15 days of receiving a diagnosis. To read that in Carlow and Kilkenny, which are served by St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny, these targets are being met in only 65% of cases is really shocking. Kilkenny and Waterford hospitals are two of the lowest performing hospitals in the country and both serve large swathes of the south east. Therefore, across the region, cancer services are seriously underperforming. When people get a cancer diagnosis, their world stops. They have panic, all the concerns that come with that and the confusion and fear for their own lives, and for their families and friends. Their whole life is thrown into disarray and all they want is to get started with treatment as soon as possible. We all know the quicker people get treatment, the better their health outcomes. Delayed treatment is not just delay, it is inextricably linked to how successful that treatment will be. The CEO of the Irish Cancer Society said, "This is not just a delay - it can be life altering."

I want to make clear I am not in any way criticising the staff of St. Luke's Hospital or any other hospital. They do Trojan work in extremely difficult circumstances. Again, the Government is letting people down. We need a debate in the new term on the waiting times for cancer patients. We need an update from the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, on what urgent steps are being taken to address these delays and we need to have a discussion on regional disparities for cancer and other treatments. If these waiting times get longer, we risk the health outcomes of people across this country. In a country as rich as Ireland, this is simply not good enough.