The Minister will understand why the subject of cancer care services is topical. He will know that there was a protest outside the Dáil last week, organised by various community organisations and cancer sufferers from the south east. Why is there interminable drift of the cancer care strategy? Why did the previous Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, promise the extension nationwide of BreastCheck screening for 2002 initially, and, latterly, for 2005? Neither date has been met. Thirteen counties in the west, the north west and the south continue to have no BreastCheck facility, despite the promises of Deputy Martin. It took Deputy Martin two years to finally publish the Hollywood report on radiotherapy services in 2003. He then commissioned another report, involving international experts, to resolve the issue of radiotherapy services in Dublin. That report was received in January but it still has not been published. Those who are in need of radiotherapy had to come to Dublin last week to protest outside the Dáil. Suitable transport facilities in the absence of local radiotherapy services have not been provided. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, will know about the long-standing campaign in the south east, yet there is no response to that.

Why is it that nobody in Government seems able to make a decision on this issue, as with many other issues, as Deputy Kenny noted? Being pugnacious in the misrepresentation of statistics does not change the written word contained in the assessment of the Comptroller and Auditor General. When will the BreastCheck screening facility be extended nationwide? Those campaigning believe that 65 women unnecessarily die every year because of the absence of this facility, given the critical importance of early detection. When will the report taken in January be published? When will facilities for radiotherapy be put in place? Does the Minister have a specific response to the people who travelled from the south-eastern counties last week to protest outside the Dáil?

The detail on some of these policy points is best addressed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children. However, I will make the following points. No Government, including this Government, seeks to unnecessarily put lives at risk. Deputy Rabbitte was in Government. Since he left office in 1997, some €550 million has been invested in cancer care. That does not suggest to him that he was unmindful of the needs of people with cancer or the need to develop cancer care services throughout the country. That line of argument does not get anyone anywhere. The context in which the Government is seeking to deal with the issue of cancer care arises from the cancer care strategy framework initiated under Deputy Noonan when he was the Minister responsible. More than €500 million has been invested in cancer care since we came to office. Some 92 additional consultant posts have been created and a further 245 clinical nurse specialists have been appointed. Approximately €95 million of capital funding has been allocated specifically for the development of cancer care related initiatives resulting in major investments, including €60 million in radiation oncology, €8.75 million in the bone marrow unit at St. James's Hospital and €12 million in BreastCheck.

The Tánaiste will give details on the nationwide roll-out of the BreastCheck service in due course. However, more than €60 million has been made available for the development of symptomatic services throughout the country. The 2000 report on the development of services for symptomatic breast disease services recommended the establishment of 14 specialist breast units nationwide. Six of these are fully operational and the remainder are at advanced stages of development. The expansion of the BreastCheck programme to the south east and the national expansion were announced in 2003. Screening commenced in Wexford in March 2004 and in Carlow in April of this year, and will commence in County Kilkenny next year. Approval has been given to BreastCheck to advertise for the appointment of a design team to work on detailed plans for the design and construction of two clinical units in Cork and Galway.

Will this happen in 2007?

The development of cancer care services has not been put on the long finger. It is not true to say that no decisions have been taken.

We need to ascertain the way in which we can accelerate the nationwide provision of the BreastCheck service. The Tánaiste has been addressing the matter and has discussed it with me. I leave it to her to decide the way in which she can bring further information to the House.

The stock and trade response to such questions by the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach is to reel off a number of statistics and refer to when the Opposition was last in office. Patients in pain and in need of morphine and, in some cases, travelling to Dublin from parts of Donegal or Waterford are not interested in the Government playing games with regard to what was in place when I was last in office. I asked when BreastCheck is to go nationwide as announced by the then Minister, Deputy Martin. It was initially announced for 2002, then for 2005. With regard to the southern region, the announcement has been made five times and yesterday the person responsible said that it cannot be put in place before 2008. On behalf of the people for whom this is a cause of acute distress and not political bickering, when will the service be rolled out nationwide as committed to by the Minister for Health and Children? When will the difficulties with regard to location in Dublin and the eastern region be resolved? A report was compiled on the matter in January but no decision has yet been made. Is there any attempt to provide the type of specialised transport that is required for those who must travel long distances from Waterford and other parts of the country while in pain?

This is a policy of drift. I do not know whether the figures listed by the Minister for Finance have been put in place. However, the people in need of these services cannot access them and in many cases it is a matter of life and death. I listened to the people who travelled to protest outside the Houses of the Oireachtas and the services are not in place. That is the issue for them. With regard to the tax incentivised private unit in Waterford, I have no idea about the arrangements which have been entered into with consultants or how it will care for public patients. These are very important and painful issues for many families and early detection is essential. There has been no investment in cervical screen testing.

I assure Deputy Rabbitte and the House that I am not involved in bickering or playing games with the issue of health. I did not suggest that I was unmoved by the prospect of 85 people at risk of dying or that I was unmindful or disinterested in the fact or that the Government was callous. There is not a policy of drift but a very proactive investment programme in place. It has not yet fully developed the services as we would like, but no one has a monopoly on sympathy or virtue with regard to the matter. I have not introduced any bickering or game-playing. Indeed, a political game is being played regarding the suggestion that there is a policy of drift in terms of what this Government does in economic or social terms. An attempt is perhaps being made by the Opposition to suggest that all this money is a waste of time and resources and has no beneficial effect. However, it does. The appointment of 92 consultant posts since 1997 is not a statistic and represents a level of expertise in the health service that was not available heretofore. It is in place to assist the many families, individuals and communities throughout the country who suffer from this disease which causes such anxiety. That is the point I was making. I am not attempting to score points but to defend the Government's record, which is my legitimate right.

With regard to the south-eastern region, the Government is doing all it can to see how we can develop radiotherapy services nationwide. When I was Minister for Health and Children, it was suggested that there would be two radiotherapy centres in Dublin and one in Cork. I reviewed the situation and provided objective criteria to confirm why the location of a radiotherapy service in Galway University Hospital would be justified. It did not depend on economic considerations but the medical throughput required for the provision of such services in that a certain level of population was needed for the service to be provided. That was the thinking at the time and the service was provided by the Government. That radiotherapy service is now in situ in Galway and has recently commenced.

The search for a solution to the problem of the provision of outreach services beyond the satellite services in Dublin, Cork and Galway has taken up the time and effort of those in the Department of Health and Children as well as the former and present Ministers. I am acutely mindful of the problems encountered by those who must travel to Dublin for specialist services. The midland health board region is the only one in the country that does not have renal services. Everybody from my constituency and bordering constituencies has had to travel for such services. I am aware of the issues and progress is being made.

Not all problems have been solved and we will continue to address them. The Tánaiste has my support and that of her Government colleagues in finding solutions to the problem. It has been suggested that a private hospital in Waterford would be able to provide such services and we would be anxious that they be provided to the wider public regardless of their means. That is the purpose of trying to use all resources available to the health service to help people deal with the problems. I have met representative groups from the region, visited Waterford and listened attentively to what they said. I have sympathy for their position, but sympathy does not solve all the problems. Every effort has been made and consideration given in dealing with this issue to the best of our ability on the basis of progress made thus far.