Seanad report: A nationwide screening programme should be put in place to ascertain who was or was not suffering from Type 2 diabetes, Camillus Glynn (FF) urged. In one medical clinic in the midlands alone, there were 3,000 diabetes sufferers on the books of one consultant.
"This condition is rivalling cancer as one of the greatest killers of our people today." Early detection was important, as was the impact this form of diabetes would have on our health services.
Geraldine Feeney (FF) said that a MRI scan service should be made available for all women over the age of 18 years to help combat the scourge of breast cancer. The sad news from Australia yesterday about a leading female entertainer had highlighted the incidence of this disease. It had recently been learned that MRI scans now appeared to be the most effective way to detect breast cancer, particularly among younger women.
Legislation should be passed to provide for the jailing of moneylenders who charged vulnerable people "punitive" interest rates, Martin Mansergh (FF) said. Consideration should be given as to whether a ceiling on interest rates should be introduced to deal with those charging 100 or 200 per cent, for example.
Such rates should be made illegal and unenforceable in the courts and it should be insured that those who demanded them went to jail rather than the people whom they tried to have imprisoned for not paying such exorbitant debts.
Mary Henry (Ind) said that as parliamentarians they should lead by example in the fight against obesity. She had suggested to the Taoiseach that one way of doing so would be by the halving of pudding portions served in Leinster House.
Amid laughter from both sides of the Chamber, David Norris (Ind) exclaimed: "An outrageous suggestion!"
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, was working with the Minister for Finance on the pupil/teacher ratio, hopefully to get a breakthrough, she supposed, for the estimates on the budget, leader Mary O'Rourke told John Paul Phelan (FG).