Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2021-06-16 ============================================================ Carol Nolan (IND), Laois-Offaly I thank the Taoiseach for his response. Our healthcare staff certainly were commendable and did a fantastic job. This chaos we have is not of their making. However, an expert in cancer care, Professor O'Reilly, has pointed out that we will see higher numbers of cancer patients for the next decade because services that should have been operational, including screening services, were not operational and, unfortunately, there will be delayed diagnoses. I want to point out to the Taoiseach that when I call for a radical reassessment, I am talking about a very reasonable proposal to carry out an impact assessment and a re-evaluation of healthcare priorities and objectives. It is unfair that hundreds of millions will be taken out of healthcare while children are languishing on hospital waiting lists. I refer to children with scoliosis who need treatment, children who need audiology services and children who need speech and language therapy. It is those children who are suffering. --- 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/2021-06-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:23+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-06-16