Last month the country's leading cancer specialist published an open letter to the Government on the state of cancer care in Ireland. It said dedicated funding for Ireland’s national cancer strategy has been delivered in only two of the past seven budgets. It said Ireland’s cancer outcomes are at risk of going backwards. Yesterday it was reported that there is another layer of inequality on top of a backward step. Professor Michaela Higgins, president of the Irish Society of Medical Oncology, stated with regard to this weekend’s reporting of the two-tier system for cancer treatment in this country, “It means we know we are prescribing medication for our patients that are proven to be less effective and to provide them with a poorer chance of survival”. New drugs are not available to public patients until the HSE completes an extensive reimbursement approval process. Private insurance companies will reimburse drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency, EMA.

I do not believe a person’s chances of surviving cancer or any other medical condition should be dependent on whether he or she can afford private healthcare. Will the Government explain to public patients what it is going to do to bring about effective private and public cancer treatments and address the poor chance of survival?

I will be happy to engage with Professor Higgins directly. I will reach out to her to do just that. This country has made a huge amount of progress when it comes to cancer outcomes. I would not like anybody listening in, public or private, to think that is not the case. The public health service has had remarkable progress in relation to cancer outcomes, cancer survival rates and access to cancer drugs. Indeed, as recently as last week we saw a new drug come on stream that I hope will have very positive impacts. I will engage with Professor Higgins because I want to hear what she has to say.