The Taoiseach is in a unique position today. Last week, I told him the question I would ask him today. I subsequently wrote to him, outlining it in detail. I do not know how often that has been done before. I again outlined the issue to him when we spoke approximately 15 minutes ago. I also raised the matter with the Minister. I am seeking a comparative analysis year-on-year, January to September, in respect of diagnoses of cancer and coronary issues and treatments of both illnesses. I am not raising this issue for any political gain or reason. That is why I flagged the issue beforehand with the Taoiseach. I can see he is taking the figures down now from his telephone. Fair play to him.

No, I am not.

He was taking something down from his phone. I would prefer it if he were listening to me. The real reason I am raising this issue is that I have a deep concern regarding the number of missed diagnoses and delayed treatments. Obviously, there are consequential issues relating to morbidity and mortality.

The Irish Cancer Society estimates that more than 450 cancers and 1,600 pre-cancers went undetected during the pause in screenings from late March to the end of July. On top of that, I have been hearing some very worrying stories. I heard two such stories in the past week alone, involving people who believed they should have had treatments and diagnoses earlier and now have stage 4 cancer. All Members are aware that that is not a very good place to be. I wish them the best. They are young people. I note the comments of a consultant who is deeply concerned about the fact that the numbers simply are not what they were a year ago in the context of his level of diagnosis of patients. That is the reason I am asking the Taoiseach to provide these figures.

I wish to acknowledge that huge strides have been made in respect of cancer care and coronary care as a result of a significant amount of work by many different Governments. However, we must ensure we are not robbing Peter to pay Paul. We must deal with Covid, but we must also ensure we are dealing with the issues of coronary and cancer care, as well as many other illnesses.

We need to see the figures in respect of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer last year as compared with this year. The Taoiseach should make those figures public and bring about a public awareness campaign to encourage people to attend their appointments. He must also ensure that sufficient capacity is put into the system such that patients can be diagnosed and treated to the same standard as pertained last year. We must not allow capacity in these areas to be soaked up because in that scenario non-Covid deaths may outnumber deaths from Covid. I ask the Taoiseach to, please, provide the analysis I am seeking. He is in a better position than I am to provide it so that we can get to the bottom of this issue. I have heard too many worrying stories. What is most important is that a public awareness campaign is begun and for the Taoiseach to ensure that capacity is put in place to deal with these issues.

Let there be no doubt that Covid-19 had a significant impact on non-Covid illness and disease. In my view, it resulted in delayed diagnoses across cancer and coronary care and in other areas. That happened because at the time of the lockdown many elective procedures and diagnostics were cancelled and significant backlogs built up. I accept and agree with the Deputy that some people are now manifesting later stage conditions as a result, it seems to me, of delayed diagnosis. Some people have told me they did not wish to go hospital. One person to whom I spoke decided not to go to hospital but is now okay. The person got a procedure done by a general practitioner that would ordinarily be carried out in a hospital. That is one of the challenges of Covid. The lockdown had an impact on non-Covid care. There was a fear about going to hospital. We are dealing with a new virus and I am not apportioning blame. I have asked the HSE to try to get specifics but that will take a bit of work in terms of comparing a whole year's diagnostic figures. Let us be clear that the figures will have to be compiled hospital by hospital in terms of diagnosis and it is not-----

If the Taoiseach thinks it will not be possible to get the figures, he should make that clear.

We will get the figures, but it will take a reasonable period of time to so do. No one is denying the reality of the impact of Covid on non-Covid care. That is why the winter initiative and what we are trying to do right now aim to manage Covid and resume services, including screening services. As the Deputy is aware, three of the four screening services have resumed screening using a phased approach. It is projected that BreastCheck will resume screening this month. That is on the screening side. There is a fair degree of catch-up there. Many clinical staff continue to work within the programmes and people who were in the system at the time of the pause have continued to be treated as hospital resources allowed. For example, women availing of BreastCheck screening services who had been screened continued to have their assessments completed and their treatment plans mapped out by the services. Surgeries continue to be scheduled and completed. There is ongoing work on the screening side and that has resumed. That is also the case in other areas. Part of the winter initiative is designed to prevent people from going into hospital in the first instance in order to free up capacity for electives. It is interesting when one looks at private sector capacity during the lockdown, one can see that no one went into private hospitals either. That seems to me to be the reason the private hospitals were quite-----

These are complex issues.

People would not go into hospital because there was a fear of so doing at the time. People were genuinely afraid of the virus. What we wish to do now is to procure private hospitals for elective procedures, diagnostics and general services. I take the Deputy's point. Whatever happens now in terms of the pandemic, part of the challenge is to maintain these services.

I think the State should buy private hospitals. I am asking the Taoiseach to provide the analysis I am seeking. I will give him another week to so do. That is two weeks he will have had, as Taoiseach of the country, to get those figures. We need diagnostics in other spheres. We need a public awareness campaign to stop people missing appointments. We need that analysis today. People trying to get to appointments in Dublin today have been held up on the M7 for more than two hours. As the Taoiseach admitted, in fairness to him, and I accepted, many people just did not go to their appointments. Will that pattern continue for another three weeks? What will happen if the level 3 status is extended for another three weeks? What will happen if we go to level 5? We must not rob Peter to pay Paul. We need to have a plan for coronary care, cancer care and other care. That is the reason I am raising this issue. It is not politics. There is no doubt that mortality rates are higher than they were last year, as are morbidity rates. I am urging the Taoiseach to address this issue. I spoke to families this week who are very upset. I do not wish for this situation to continue. We need a plan to ring-fence resources in order to be able to ensure that these services are available and that people are attending them.

We also need a public awareness campaign.

The Taoiseach mentioned screening. It is a passion of mine; I am sure he understands that. First, the cervical cancer screening backlog was meant to be filled by this month. Has that been done? Second, if someone wants to get a BreastCheck appointment and does a Google search the website says the service is closed. Also, the screening should not have been changed from every two years to every three years. There is no clinical reason for that.

There is a plan. The winter initiative is the plan to increase capacity in general hospital beds and to increase ICU capacity but primarily it is more preventative to prevent people going into hospital in the first place. We then have the community diagnostic hubs and stronger primary care resources, all of which are provided for in the winter initiative. In addition, there are 4.7 million extra home care packages and hours, all of which are designed to try to keep capacity in our hospitals to allow for elective procedures such as coronary care and cancer surgeries and to ensure that this time around we can try to protect those services as much as we possibly can if Covid-19 intensifies, and the Covid case numbers are growing. We cannot deny that. We cannot go into denial either because Covid will impact on hospital services. Unfortunately, that is a reality that we cannot deny.

We do not have much time-----

I am sorry, the virus is not an exact science.

We know that-----

It has not been since the beginning. The point I would make is that the winter initiative is a large and significant initiative and we have to get that delivered and implemented in terms of acute capacity and additional private bed capacity. I agree with the Deputy that the precise procurement and approach to that is an issue. I refer to intermediate care beds, additional access to diagnostics for GPs, community healthcare networks, community specialist teams for older people, and chronic diseases.

We are way over time. I thank the Taoiseach.

One of the big problems for the hospitals, as the Deputy and I know, has been that too many people who are finished their acute phase of hospital treatment have had to stay in hospital for far too long, with backlogs the whole way down the line. I will ask the agency to give the Deputy any information he requires in terms of specifics around particular diseases and conditions.