I am glad to be able to participate in this debate. We have all been in community halls across the country and in our constituencies talking about road traffic issues when someone at the back of the hall pipes up and asks, "Does it take someone to die?" Unfortunately, when it comes to cancer care, there have been far too many deaths. In particular, several very high-profile women were on the national airwaves and leading campaigns here at the front of Leinster House right up to their final hours. It has taken many deaths to get cancer care further progressed and it is still not where we need it to be. As many people have said tonight, there are many objectives of our national cancer strategy that are not being met, and that should be of huge concern to us all. Just the other day, I was at my GP for a routine check-up and they took bloods. I was low on vitamin D; I need to get out in the sunshine. That is quite typical. However, I, as a politician, was alarmed to hear that the laboratory in University Hospital Limerick could not test for vitamin D. It was "overwhelmed", was the word I got. I will get over the vitamin D deficiency with an over-the-counter tablet and going out in the sunshine; that is fine. However, it is worrying to hear a laboratory that is tasked with detecting so many illnesses, deficiencies and diseases, and which is the gateway where many people find out they have cancer, is overwhelmed to the point that certain tests referred on from a GP practice cannot be followed through. I think that merits further investigation by the Department. I am not here to fault that laboratory; it does fantastic work. It is overwhelmed and needs more resourcing and support. It would be remiss of me not to mention the news announced in the past week and a half regarding University Hospital Limerick and the choosing of a new site for that hospital in Raheen. I heard about it on the airwaves. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, was down there with all her colleagues. She ignored six of us who are colleagues of hers in government, but we tuned into the radio and found out what was going on. I cannot hide my disappointment. This was to be a new hospital campus chosen for the region. It will alleviate the pressures felt at UHL, those incessant trolley times and waiting times, but it does damn all for the people who live in the extremities of west and north Clare. For those people, there is no golden hour. If they get into acute chest pain and collapse on the floor and someone in the household phones for an ambulance, it can take nearly an hour and three quarters - up to two hours - for that ambulance to get back there. They probably will not make it to hospital. Of all the things I have seen happen here over the past six years, if there was one thing that should have happened, it would have been more cognisance of geography in this decision, but that did not happen. I am running out of time-----

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-----but I will bring this up in a future debate.

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