Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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679. To ask the Minister for Health if her attention has been brought to a proposal to establish a national radiotherapy equipment replacement programme (details supplied); if she will commit to doing so to address the critically outdated linear accelerators in many of the State’s public cancer treatment facilities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50354/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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There are five public radiotherapy treatment departments in Ireland with a total of 22 linear accelerators across these services. The Radiation Oncology centres in Cork and Galway which opened in 2019 and 2023 respectively, are newly built facilities, representing €120 million direct investment in state of the art radiotherapy treatment.

The ongoing development of Radiation Oncology services is line with the National Plan for Radiation Oncology (NPRO) (“Hollywood Report”), as well as successive national cancer strategies. Under the NPRO, a phased expansion of the St Lukes Radiation Oncology Network (SLRON) is underway.

The network operates across three sites at Beaumont, St. James’s and St. Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar. The rollout of replacement equipment across the 3 locations is expected to be completed over a 5-year period and installed by Q3 2030, with additional equipment in Beaumont to be completed by Q3 2031. The scope of the programme includes design, construction works and installation of equipment. The HSE has noted that the linear accelerators will take approximately 22-26 weeks each to install.

SLRON is expected to complete Stage 1 of the replacement programme in the coming weeks and subject to completion/approval of the PBC/SAR, commence the procurement process in Q1 2026 with a view to appointing a contractor in Q4 2026.

The delivery of this replacement programme is particularly complex, as upgrade works will be required to the buildings and treatment capacity will have to maintained for patients. In addition, the works and installation of equipment will be undertaken in a live clinical environment. The Government is committed to improving cancer care, ensuring better prevention, maintaining improvements in cancer survival rates, and timely access to treatments, including radiotherapy.