Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I acknowledge Senator Kyne, as a Senator from the west of Ireland, for tabling this motion.

In 2022, we attended a presentation by Professors Michael Kerin and Maccon Keane. These consultants took time out of an unbelievably precious schedule to visit Buswells Hotel and give a presentation. Senator Kyne raised a key point about a cancer centre in the west of Ireland. As Senators who represents counties Roscommon and Galway, we can inform the Minister of State that there are worse outcomes there than if you live in the east or south. They are the worst outcomes. People have been looking for a cancer centre plan for the west of Ireland for I do not know how many years. They were looking for it in 2022. The investment we need to see must be balanced across the country. We talk about balanced regional investment, and the phrase spins off our lips so easily. We talk about these things when it comes to schools, school transport and buildings and all of the crucial things we need. We are talking about the health of people's lives and survival rates.

It has long been a challenge for me to look at investment across health service. We say to people who live in the west of Ireland that the chances are that survival rates are potentially not as good. I know Professors Keane and Kerin, and I know their teams. I have many family members who have gone through cancer treatment and thank god received excellent treatment at their hands. However, they are struggling if they are not able to access the same levels of support and services in the west as they can in the rest of the country. I look to the Minister of State and the Government to see what can be done.

Another point raised by Senator Kyne in his motion relates to the national cancer strategy and the supports offered by different community cancer centres across the west. I am speaking only of the area I know. We have cancer support services that try to take people to get their chemotherapy. At my offices in Ballinasloe and Roscommon, I deal with people who cannot get to the hospital because of a lack of bus and train services. The Minister of State will tell me that this is obviously not his bailiwick. I want to see integrated supports in the context of people accessing our hospitals such that when we deliver services, the HSE and Department of Health work with the Department of Transport to ensure that Local Link bus services should connect to Portiuncula University Hospital or Roscommon University Hospital. At the moment, there are not as many of those services as people would like to see. That is all part of people being able to access the service and get to Galway, Roscommon, Portiuncula, Letterkenny, Castlebar and all of these facilities that cover the north-west and the west.

I support of Senator Kyne. I thank him, our colleagues in Fine Gael, our Government partners and those who have spoken here and who have experiences in their own lives of dealing with this matter. We need to fight for balanced investment. I am not saying this is simple. We need to see that service and to fight for it across all the regions.