Vol. 500 No. 1
221 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Health and Children if an indepth investigation has been carried out recently by his Department to ascertain the possible causes at the increasing number of people suffering from cancer. [3548/99]
The National Cancer Registry Board, NCRB, collects information on the incidence of, and deaths from cancer in Ireland. The first year for which national information is available is 1994. The following table gives a summary of the trends for the most common cancers for 1994 to 1996. The data indicate that there has been a slight increase in case numbers, detected by the NCRB but this is mainly due to an increase in skin cancer. The rise in skin cancers noted by the NCRB is considered to be due to better detection by the registry and does not necessarily represent a rise in skin cancer in the population. None of the other common cancers, except oesophagus, rose or fell significantly over the period.
Care must be taken in interpreting data over such a short period. The National Cancer Registry Board will continue to monitor trends in deaths from all forms of cancer in the coming years, and my Department will continue to support the board in its work. I am committed to supporting all possible steps to reduce deaths from cancer. To this end, I am funding the continued implementation of the national cancer strategy. In 1998 I provided £8.7 million for this purpose, with a further £6.855 million going to further enhance the development of cancer services this year.
