My first question is in relation to the national cancer strategy. The Minister might be aware the Irish Cancer Society has been raising concerns over the past number of weeks and months in relation to access to diagnostics, staffing shortages across cancer centres and cancer services but also insufficient and inconsistent funding for the national cancer strategy. The Minister might outline to the House, if she can, what additional funding has been made available for the national cancer strategy and for cancer servi…

The Irish Cancer Society was before the Oireachtas health committee a number of weeks ago. It raised very serious concerns in relation to major delays in diagnostics and treatment, particularly in the areas of colonoscopy, breast and prostate clinics, imaging, surgery and radiation therapy. It raised concerns about severe staffing shortages in radiology, cancer nursing and radiation therapy. I put down a parliamentary question on the number of scanners and the diagnostic equipment that is lying idle, is not being f…

I fully understand that cancer services go beyond the national cancer strategy. Of course that is the case. Across all of our acute hospitals, cancer services are provided that are outside the remit of the national cancer strategy. That strategy is also important in bringing together stakeholders. It is meant to bring consistency in services and it looks at where gaps are and so on. I had this discussion with the Minister at the Oireachtas health committee yesterday. I do not need to know exactly how the money is g…

This question relates to diagnostic waiting lists and the number of patients waiting for various forms of diagnostic equipment in hospitals across the State. The numbers are quite high, as I am sure the Minister will see. What are her views and plans for how she will reduce those wait times and the number of people who are waiting for a diagnostic scan?

The most recent figures are that almost 300,000 people are on a waiting list for a diagnostic scan. Over 77,000 of those have been waiting more than a year and over 46,000 have been waiting more than 18 months. That is far in excess of any Sláintecare targets. I gave examples earlier of CT scanners and other diagnostic equipment that is not being fully utilised, partly because we do not have the staff. I agree with the Minister that we need to do everything possible to fully utilise existing scanners and equipment.…

I took an active interest in the area of diagnostics after my mother passed. She went for a check in an emergency department and was told she would have to wait for possibly 12 to 18 months for a CT scan. We had the money to send her privately. She had that scan done in a matter of weeks, was diagnosed with cancer and, unfortunately, within a year had passed away. I know how important it is for people to get that timely access. I can only imagine how difficult it is for a person who is told they could be waiting mo…

I do not think the Minister of State or the Government get it at all. People outside this building wonder whether they live in a bubble and whether they have any understanding of what it is like for ordinary families. The Government initiated these statements on the issues and rising costs affecting the haulage industry when the Government is responsible for those same rising costs. What is ironic and a real slap in the face to everybody faced with rising motoring costs is that we proposed a motion in this House la…

In 2017, the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, made a promise to children with scoliosis and spina bifida that long waiting lists would essentially end and that children would no longer wait in pain, deteriorate or lose the chance of life-changing and, in some cases, life-saving intervention. He promised that no child would be left waiting longer than four months for surgery. Since then, as we know, countless children have suffered in agony, without surgery within four months and, in many cases, tragically, without surgery a…

I will not hold the Minister up on this. I would say we will get through this very quickly. It is a technical amendment and the Minister is right. It is the only section of the Bill that has not been commenced, but obviously it is an important section. As the Minister said, it gives the chief inspector the discretionary powers to commission an investigation, and that is an important part of the Bill we had passed. Will the Minister say, if this Bill is passed, does it have to go to the Seanad or are these the final…

We are into next year, I take it.

It is very controversial.

On the issue of voluntary hospitals, as the Minister has raised it, I raised this issue with the CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, when he appeared before the health committee last week, as well as with Derek Tierney, the assistant secretary in the Department of Health. I have seen media reports of attempts to make sure the voluntary hospitals play ball in relation to the integrated financial service management system. This is something I raised with staff in the HSE when we were looking at the health regions. Muiri…

I have a final point on this issue. I do not want to hold up the discussion on the Bill itself. I have read media reports of tensions between the Minister and some of voluntary hospitals. I do not want to get into that because I do not know the accuracy of it and I am not really that interested in it, in any event. The only interest I have is that the voluntary hospitals are fully compliant, play ball and implement in full the new financial management system that has been put in place, and any other system because …

I support the amendment, but I will pretty quickly make a point about the digital transformation of healthcare. This is something the Joint Committee on Health has spent a lot of time looking at over the past number of years. I will not rehearse all of the arguments, because we know we have a long road to travel. There is a direction of travel now with summary care records. It will take some time to get all the bells and whistles and electronic health records similar to those that exist in many other European count…

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Any measure that we examine and look at has to be seen in the context of what is a very real cost-of-living crisis for workers and for families. It is absolutely staggering that we had a Government that spent so-called billions of euro in the budget just gone, yet left so many people worse off and the vast majority of people certainly are not better off. The €10 increase in the pension was less than what was needed for that to even stand still. There was no increase in child benefit. More money has to be spent by f…

Again, we had a scripted speech from a Minister of State that was just a continuous attack against the Opposition and Sinn Féin. Every time we raise issues in relation to the cost of living, the Government’s response is to ask where are the solutions. We brought forward a motion today with solutions, and we had a very scripted speech from the Minister of State that rubbished every one of the solutions we put forward. What is also interesting is that on all the additional hikes and cost increases and the cost-of-liv…

None?