The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has given a clear commitment that funding will be made available in the forthcoming health estimates to extend radiotherapy services in line with the recommendations of the recently published Hollywood report.
In a speech to mark the opening of the All-Ireland Cancer Conference in Cork yesterday, the Minister said the implementation of the Hollywood report was "my number one priority in cancer services".
"You will definitely see movement on this next year. We will be prioritising it within whatever resources we have for 2004," he told The Irish Times.
Pressure is growing on the Minister to row back on his plans to provide radiotherapy treatment facilities for cancer patients only in Dublin, Cork and Galway for the foreseeable future.
While Mr Martin has said radiotherapy may be provided in other regions, including the mid-west and south-east, in the longer term, health boards and local lobby groups have expressed their unhappiness.
Yesterday in a statement the Mid Western Health Board said it was "gravely disappointed" with the decision, which followed the publication just over a week ago of the Hollywood report.
It said the report and the Minister had failed to address the significant inequities endured by cancer patients in its region.
The national Cancer Care Alliance will hold a press conference in Dublin tomorrow to highlight their dissatisfaction with the expert group's findings.
The Hollywood report on radiation oncology services in the Republic has recommended that a backbone of four major cancer treatment centres be established in the State. At a five-year cost in the region of €240 million, it is estimated that funding of €50 million could be required for 2004.
Dr Richard Peto, Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford University, told the meeting yesterday that smoking causes more cancer deaths than all other causes of cancer put together.
Emphasising that the main hazard is from cigarette smoking that starts in early adult life and does not stop, he said he had three important messages for the individual smoker.
"The risk of smoking is big - half of all smokers are killed by the habit. One quarter of smokers are killed in middle-age and lose many years of potential life as a result. And stopping smoking really works."
In response to a statement by Dr Joe Harford, the Director of International Affairs at the US National Cancer Institute, congratulating Mr Martin on introducing the workplace smoking ban in Ireland, the meeting of international healthcare workers spontaneously applauded the Minister for Health.
Dr Harford asked that the Republic closely document the impact of the smoking ban and its health benefits.
Meanwhile, Dr Harry Comber, Director of the National Cancer Registry, said that 3 per cent of the population of the island were cancer survivors.
"More than 50 per cent of all deaths in people aged 50 to 60 are due to cancer, with breast and lung cancer the biggest causes of potential years of life lost here."
Referring to the important role of fruit and vegetables in cancer prevention and their relative expense, Dr Jane Wilde, Director of the Institute of Public Health, criticised the Common Agriculture Policy. "The CAP is no longer serving the common good and it is not serving the interests of public health," she said in a reference to the practice of destroying fruit and vegetables as part of the EU agriculture policy.