Hospital Equipment
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
============================================================

Martin Daly (FF), Roscommon-Galway

In talking about management and productivity, the Minister will find an ally in me. She has pointed this out very clearly since she began her tenure as Minister for Health. I agree with her 100%. I acknowledge the investment by the Department and the HSE in the linear accelerators in Galway. That is a hugely welcome development but, as the Minister has quite rightly pointed out, the figures for the time between point of diagnosis and getting to chemotherapy are not meeting the targets in the west of Ireland. We should not have that regional disparity. I am getting off the point but the Minister has acknowledged that, which is very honest of her.
With regard to the linear accelerators, it has been expressed to me that part of the problem is a very slow procurement process, especially for those older machines, which have been in service far longer than internationally recommended. I have been told that, when some of the components break down, not only are the machines taken out of operation for up to three weeks, but the replacement components can cost €300,000 to €400,000. In the context of a machine that costs €2 million to €3 million, that seems inexplicable.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05