Like many other Deputies in this Chamber, I am a cancer survivor. I am blessed to be six years cancer-free. When you have cancer, it is like an enormous cloud descends upon you and your family. The more important message to go out tonight is that if you get treatment fast, the sun will shine again and that cloud will lift from your family. Getting treatment is the key issue and the problem is the fact that where someone lives in Ireland determines whether he or she gets treatment in a timely fashion. There is a postcode lottery in this country when it comes to cancer treatment and, therefore, cancer outcomes. The Irish Cancer Society has released damning information that shows massive variations in cancer diagnostics and treatments in this country. Patients in major cities, particularly those travelling from the north west, face delays of up to eight weeks for chemotherapy despite the national cancer strategy stating that a person should not wait for more than 15 days. People with breast cancer and prostate cancer are being denied timely, life-saving chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I met a doctor in Letterkenny who told me that just 12% of cancer patients in that hospital received treatment within the recommended 15-day working timeframe. In Galway, patients are waiting seven to eight weeks for treatment. The National Cancer Control Programme has written to Aontú stating that the HSE is failing to meet its own radiation treatment targets. In the year to August 2024, treatment targets were met only once in Galway and only twice in Cork. Cancer services in the north west are being shut down. Cancer centres in Galway, Waterford and Limerick do not have the necessary PET scans, antique radiotherapy equipment is breaking down and people are dying for the lack of timely treatment. The Irish Cancer Society has said that the Government has met only one of its six targets set for cancer treatment and tests. A reply to a parliamentary question from Aontú has shown that breast cancer survival rates can differ by 14% from one county to another. The Minister of State will be glad to know the breast cancer survival rates are as high as 94% in Cavan, but they are as low as 80% in the likes of Kerry. Last summer, BreastCheck, a countrywide screening service for women between 50 and 69, missed the target for 195,000 screenings by 30%, an incredible figure. Aontú also discovered that there is a 12% differential in outcomes for breast cancer depending on whether someone is diagnosed in a public or private hospital. Someone diagnosed in a cancer centre has an 85% chance of surviving, while someone diagnosed in another public hospital has an 81% chance of surviving. However, someone diagnosed in a private hospital has a 93% chance of surviving. A patient diagnosed in Sweden is 7% more likely to survive, while a patient diagnosed in Britain is 5% more likely to survive. Other countries are doing far better and more people are being protected. Why is this? It is because the money in this country is not getting to the front line. Many staff are going abroad. A reply to another Aontú parliamentary question has shown that 13,000 nursing staff left Ireland in the past five years. That is an incredible legacy left by this Government. In some years, the majority of graduating doctors are also leaving this country. Thankfully, cancer survival rates are increasing but that is because of better medicines, improved technology and improved treatments. It is certainly not because of the actions of this Government.

Sentiment score: -0.15