Tom Clonan (Independent)

I welcome everybody from the Dublin Dental University Hospital to the Chamber, in particular Rebecca. It was lovely to meet her. I am working with her dad who has taught me everything I know, or at least some of the things I know.

I am delighted to hear the Government is not going to oppose the motion. Frankly, it is something that one could not oppose. It is a categoric and ethical imperative to support the work our colleagues are doing in the Dublin Dental University Hospital. This is a rare occasion when we see people from the front line in the House. Regarding all of the failures in our health service, it is not Bernard Gloster, Robert Watt from the Department or the Minister's officials who will be held to account. Rather, it will be individuals by way of the Irish Medical Council or litigation. Staff are on the front line and are living every day in the workplace the shortcomings that have been set out here.

Senator Craughwell is using his voice as a legislator, Senator and father. I have a son who has a neuromuscular disease which is progressive and is also losing his voice. I am aware of the lack of a proper treatment pathway for those conditions. It is fragmented. Notwithstanding the best efforts of the wonderful team in St. Vincent's, it was suggested to us that we would have to do the voice banking for him due to a lack of proper physiotherapy support and would have to find funding. His 17-year-old brother would have to look at old family videos and see whether he could harvest audio of his voice. This is completely unacceptable in a developed European Union country.

I take on board what is set out. I thank Senator Craughwell for drafting the motion. The motion refers to a recurring theme across the health service. A proper national head and neck cancer pathway, in particular for oral cancers, with all of the associated workforce required to support it, and proper dental oncology care are required. The Minister has heard the statistics. Some 400 patients per annum present with oral cancers and the profile is younger and younger. For lack of a proper integrated service, the outcomes and prognoses can be quite stark. There is a 9% increase in mortality for every four-week period of delay.

What surprises and shocks me is that the amount of funding being sought is €1.3 million. There is already funding of €900,000, to which the Minister referred in the response. The difference between that and €1.3 million is, not to be facile or trite, less than the price of a bike shed. Such funding would have a significant impact.

The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, cannot be here but the officials are present. This is a matter that should be dealt with now. The experts are in the room and the Minister has been told about the situation. When the Minister found out about this and what she did about it are the main questions. This is not a big ask; we are talking about €400,000 or €500,000. That should be done within the week, or certainly within the month. I cannot think of a reason that could not happen. The figure is extraordinary.

There is a medical health professional in our family who also operates in a system that is inadequately resourced and funded, with all of the workforce challenges involved. The people who carry out this service experience recurring moral distress and cumulative moral injury due to seeing suboptimal outcomes for want of the simple interventions that their higher specialist training and expertise indicates should be there.

Not only do we need to look after the patients; we need to look after our teams. That is one of the reasons we cannot retain people and so many of our wonderful therapists and medical professionals are in New Zealand, Canada and Australia. It is because they look after them. We are talking about funding of €400,000 or €500,000.

I will commit to checking in with the team from the Dublin Dental University Hospital and Senator Craughwell in six months' time. If there has been no progress, as a member of the Joint Committee on Health I will ensure we will add it to the work schedule and get the Secretary General of the Department, the Minister and the HSE in to answer these questions.

I am proud to see Senator Craughwell use his voice for his daughter's voice. We might add our voices to that in this House to advocate for the very simple and modest request set out in the Private Members' motion. Of all of the Private Members' motions we have had in the House over the past three years, this one will stay in my memory. As our Sinn Féin colleague said, it was heartfelt. I appreciate the support we are getting from our Government colleagues across the floor.