MacSharry intervenes in dispute over Sligo cancer services

FORMER TÁNAISTE and minister for finance Ray MacSharry has intervened in the controversy about the downgrading of cancer services in Sligo, saying yesterday that it was no longer a political issue and that the arguments should be based on medical and geographical grounds.

Mr MacSharry said the debate would not be won on “parochial or political” grounds, and he appealed to staff at the hospital to prepare a report with up-to-date figures that would convince Prof Tom Keane, head of the National Cancer Control Programme, and HSE boss Prof Brendan Drumm about Sligo’s special case.

The former EU commissioner said the defeat of last week’s Fine Gael Dáil motion – which was not supported by local Fianna Fáil TDs – was inevitable given that it referred to other places apart from Sligo. Nobody wanted to see the entire cancer strategy unravelling. Democracy was based on the survival of political parties, and they could not survive without rules and discipline.

The timing of his comments were questioned by a leading campaigner, who said it was “disingenuous” to suggest that this was not a political issue.

Killian McLoughlin of the Save Sligo Cancer Services Campaign said Mr MacSharry’s interview was front-page news on the Sligo Champion this week while the defeat of last week’s motion – and the failure of Fianna Fáil TDs to support it – had been relegated to the second part of the newspaper.

Stressing he had the “height of respect” for Mr MacSharry, Mr McLaughlin said he was a man who, while he had retired from politics, had considerable influence and friends in Government. “This is a Government decision. I wish it wasn’t but it is.”

He also questioned why Fianna Fáil had not sought to amend the Dáil motion.

Last January Mr MacSharry made an impassioned plea for the retention of breast cancer services in Sligo during the funeral of his wife Elaine, which was attended by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and by Brian Cowen.

He told Ocean FM in Sligo yesterday that those who advocated a No vote to Lisbon as part of this campaign would be “cutting off their nose to spite their face”.

The local lobby group has opted not to campaign for a No vote.

Mr McLaughlin said campaigners would take legal advice on whether there were grounds for a High Court action due to discrimination.

“Why should women and men in the northwest have to spend eight to 10 hours a day in a bus for 15 minutes’ treatment?” he asked, referring to patients who have to travel to Galway for radiotherapy.