I am sure the Tánaiste will agree with me that those who have, unfortunately, received a cancer diagnosis do not have the luxury of time while multi-annual budgets are introduced or efficiencies are found in health spending. This is true at the medical end of the spectrum also and it is true with respect to the excellent community support organisations that often accompany cancer patients and their families through what is often one of the most stressful and difficult times in a person's life.

That is why today I highlight the challenges being experienced by a fantastic, Offaly-based service called Dóchas, which is a cancer support group. Representatives from Dóchas, along with other members of a working group, met the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, on 13 September. They impressed on him the seriousness of the funding situation facing the wider collective community of cancer support services. The Department of Health undertook to speak to the national cancer control programme and the community healthcare organisations, CHOs, to see what funding may be available through them, as well as exploring any other avenues for possible once-off funding. Dóchas also submitted a comprehensive business proposal to Ms Carole Broadbank, chief officer of CHO 8, outlining the need for section 39 funding at local level.

What did Dóchas get for all its trouble? It got a one-line response with an apology that no funding would be made available for the service despite the fact the Dóchas Offaly cancer support group falls into the same CHO as the Lakelands Area Retreat and Cancer Centre, LARCC, in Mullingar and the Cuisle Cancer Support Centre in Portlaoise, both of which are receiving section 39 funding through CHO 8. Those organisations also do fantastic work. I stress Dóchas has an excellent and collaborative working relationship with the centres I just mentioned which, as I said, do excellent work and it is good they have funding. However, the fact remains there is a gross disparity in funding that needs to be addressed. The major concern in Dóchas is it is not receiving any funding through CHO area 8 despite those other two receiving it. Dóchas and the community throughout Offaly who rely on it for vital support are now at risk of what is looking like a major operating deficit for 2023. My understanding is it is approximately €50,000, but in real terms it may be the difference between Dóchas being able to operate a vital service or not being able to do so. I am calling on the Tánaiste to take whatever action is necessary to revise this decision and have the HSE extend the courtesy of providing something more than a one-line reply to cancer support advocates like Dóchas.

First of all, I addressed this issue before the budget. I spoke to the Minister for Health about community cancer support groups throughout the country that came together to seek additional supports for organisations that were established as voluntary organisations. As we all know, significant fundraising efforts in communities countrywide have underpinned these support groups that provide very valuable services to cancer patients and their families. They provide tailor-made, psychological, social and community supports to children, young people, parents, siblings and so forth, and it is very valuable.

It has never been in the section 39 space. Most of these organisations have not been, if we are honest. The idea we would be moving to section 39 overnight was not a realistic proposition, but what the groups asked was that we begin a funding stream for such organisations. The Minister has allocated, I think, €2.75 million going up to €3 million for such organisations. There has been an assessment made. I think the ask was higher, but one has to work through the capacity to absorb and so on. Then the hope is that through the national cancer control programme, which in its latest strategy has allowed for the importance of this, we mainstream that as recurrent funding in future. I do not know when Dóchas got the letter, but I would like to think we would review that in the context of the allocation in the budget. I will talk to the Minister for Health about it.

I believe these services are very valuable. The problem very often is the acute services absorb a lot of the money in health, sometimes to the detriment of the development of other strands of healthcare. The work these groups do is invaluable in providing support. When people leave hospital or come away with a diagnosis of cancer it can be a very anxious and worrying moment. They come out of hospital and have just got news. The centres are very important and are almost lifesavers for people. They provide the opportunity to meet others who have been similarly diagnosed to discuss the implications of it for them and their families. This is a start. The Deputy has raised an important issue I am very interested in. I have worked with these organisations for quite a long time. They came to us to make a submission and we have made a response. It may not be at the scale people might wish, but it is a very significant start and intervention.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I acknowledge he has said he would be open to asking the Minister for a review. That is absolutely crucial here. There is so much frustration about the inequity of the funding. Two other groups in the same CHO were able to qualify for section 39 funding, which is welcome, yet Dóchas was not. Its staff do incredible work, without doubt, and they are badly needed in the county and beyond. They do fantastic work and need support. I understand only a small sum, in the grand scale of things, is needed to keep this service operating. It is obviously disappointing that Dóchas invited representatives of the HSE to the centre to see at first hand the invaluable work done there and the invitation was never accepted by them. It is nothing to do with the Tánaiste, but it is important to say that is what has happened.

How can the HSE look for billions of funding when it is not going to support organisations such as Dóchas in our communities? It is a bit much.

To be fair to the HSE, it has enormous challenges in budgets, but it should be working with these organisations. The consultant, Professor Seamus O'Reilly, in our city, has been leading the charge for these centres. As a consultant and a clinician, he sees the value of organisations such as ARC in that context and advocates very strongly for them. By the way, the €3 million has to be additional to whatever existing funding CHOs in different parts of the country are allocating to these organisations. We do not want it to replace existing local arrangements and provision. The HSE, to be fair, has provided funding to quite a few organisations in certain CHOs. I will ask the Minister to look at the situation with Dóchas Offaly in light of the Deputy raising it here.