Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First of all, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I take the Deputy's overall point that there are challenges in terms of the European-wide supply chain issues here but also personnel. Globally, radiologists and radiation oncologists are in short supply and in high demand and that creates challenges. This may not be consolation but if you look at where we were ten years ago or 20 years ago as compared to where we are today, we have significantly improved but I do not in any way understate the challenges that lie ahead.
Since 2017, approximately €105 million has been invested in the national cancer strategy. Capital funding of over €140 million has been used since that date - one is current and the other is capital - to provide state-of-the-art radiation oncology facilities in Cork and Galway and to establish a national cervical screening laboratory, and then to update cancer infrastructure and chemotherapy wards and lab facilities.
In the past six years, the radiology training programme has grown by 32% and more than 20 additional radiology specialty training posts have been established in the last three years. New radiology posts will enhance the specialist care of many specialties, including cancer care. Budget 2025 included funding for five additional training specialist registrar posts along with four additional training posts.
On the replacement programme, the demand is increasing in line with expectations identified by the National Cancer Registry and the National Cancer Control Programme. We have five public radiotherapy treatment departments in Ireland, with a total of 22 linear accelerators in operation across these services. Galway has four machines. Cork has five machines. St. Luke's Radiation Oncology Network has 14 machines operating across three sites in Dublin: St. James's, Beaumont and St. Luke's. The HSE has a planned radiotherapy equipment replacement programme in place and has advised that all linear accelerator, Linac, machines in the St. Luke's Radiation Oncology Network will be replaced over a five-year period out to 2030 with an additional two machines to be located at the Beaumont site. The design process is currently under way. Step 1 of the procurement process for the works and equipment will commence in Q1 of next year, with a contractor in place later in the year. If we can accelerate that, we will. The replacement programme has come under the national development plan. It is being progressed under its aegis. It is included in the capital plan for 2025 and the health sectoral capital plan from 2026-2030. The facilities in Cork and Galway are newly-built facilities, opened in 2019 and 2023, respectively, involving capital investment of €120 million. Advanced radiotherapy technology in Ireland has also been implemented, including the stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy and the stereotactic radiosurgery, SRS, which aims to reduce the number of treatment sessions.
However, we are coming from a low base historically in this sector.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10