Despite the improvements of recent years, the Minister will be aware that breast cancer remains a significant killer of women in our society. It has had a traumatic effect on many families over the years, including my own. My mother died some years ago following a mastectomy to treat breast cancer. At the weekend we heard moving testimony from the distinguished journalist and broadcaster, Olivia O'Leary, at the publication of her book on the presidential career of Mary Robinson. She recounted her own experience of this dreadful experience and stressed the urgent necessity of intervention for people suspected of having this disease.
Last weekend at one of my information clinics, I met one of my constituents from the Kilbarrack area who was very distressed and tearful about his wife's health. His wife had lumps in her breast and suspected the worst, and because of the family history she had had some tissue removed. This woman's GP had been told by the Mater Hospital that the earliest possible appointment for a mammogram and treatment would be the end of January or early February. Needless to say, this woman and her husband have been left in turmoil and they are terrified that over the coming three months their worst fears could be realised.
I am aware there is a system in place whereby GPs conduct examinations of their patients, prioritise those requiring immediate treatment and refer them to hospitals. These people do not have voluntary health insurance but there appears to be a prima facie case that this woman might not be treated in time with obviously disastrous consequences for herself and her family. Obviously I have sent a memo to the Minister, Deputy Cowen, the Taoiseach and the chief executive of the Mater Hospital requesting the earliest possible intervention in this case.
This morning we had a brouhaha, which the Chair eventually brought to a close, about the Health Estimates and the fact that there is a sum of £32 million in outstanding income that the Government apparently does not propose to spend this year and which, in the context of the case I have recounted, is outrageous. I urge the Minister to reconsider this issue.
On the overall macro-budgetary position, we received the Estimates yesterday from the Minister for Finance. I cannot understand the logic of banking £1 billion at this stage of our development when, thanks to the NTMA, we have succeeded in reducing the debt to £28.5 billion. That seems to be the straitjacket approach of the Department of Finance which is making predictions about the coming years when it has been wrong about previous predictions.
I realise there are serious structural problems in relation to Irish medicine and treatment. Indeed, it has been estimated that we need an additional 700 consultants because our junior doctors continue to be hopelessly overworked. There is a crazy system in place whereby public contractors are using public facilities. I urge the Minister, Deputy Cowen to address that problem.
Previous Ministers for Health, including Noel C. Browne and Barry Desmond, a former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, tried to reorganise the health care system but they came off second best. An urgent reappraisal is needed and I urge the Minister, who had a reputation for being a tough Minister who took on everybody, to take on these vested interests in the health area.
There is no doubt that in the period 1987-92, first under the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil alliance known as the Tallaght strategy and then under the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government, some people died on waiting lists because of the savage cutbacks at that time. That era has long since passed, the money is flowing in and people expect us to spend it and benefit from the Celtic tiger. If there is a single case of a major illness that needs to be treated as a matter of urgency, it is the job of the Minister and the Minister of State to organise that and not to condemn people to suffering and turmoil. As the Leader of the Opposition said this morning, people will be in agony over Christmas waiting for test results. Their minds should be put at rest. The Minister should grab the health service by the scruff of the neck and give the Irish people what a free, independent republic should have, not the skulking and semi-privatised fiasco we have at the moment.
