One of the two radiography machines in University Hospital Limerick is out of order since last Thursday. This is supposed to be a world-class facility for cancer care not only serving Limerick city and county, but also Clare, Tipperary, Kerry and parts of Cork. My office has received numerous calls from cancer patients whose treatment has been delayed by over a week. You can understand how anxious they are and how worrying that is. Why is it taking so long to fix the machine? It has been out of order since last Thursday, which is today last week. That is seven days in the running of things. There are only two of these machines in the centre and there is a huge backlog. It is causing huge worry and stress for people who are already stressed and under pressure from going through the illness of cancer. Surely it should not take seven days to get a very important machine like that repaired.

I will talk to the HSE today and ask it to revert to the Department, which will revert directly to the Deputy. He can rest assured that everything that needs to be done will be done to make sure that full cancer services and treatments continue.