Protesters demand cancer services
Mr Ahern visited Waterford three years ago on Daffodil Day and promised the region would get a cancer treatment service, Cancer Care Alliance spokeswoman Jane Bailey said.
"The Taoiseach's last word to us was he would do something to ensure we get a proper cancer treatment service in Waterford," Ms Bailey added.
But since then the Government has failed to deliver the €12 million needed.
"We hold the Taoiseach personally responsible for this failure and want him to have the same concern for the 422,000 people living in the south-east as he had for the Aer Rianta and CIÉ workers," Ms Bailey said.
The expert group on radiotherapy has recommended all cancer treatment services be centralised so chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery would be available in the one place.
Health Minister Micheál Martin has decided the centralised cancer treatment centre will be in Dublin with two regional centres in Cork and Galway.
But the Cancer Care Alliance believes this is totally unfair as it leaves the entire south-east without a multi-purpose cancer treatment service. Waterford Regional Hospital has a chemotherapy and cancer surgery service but radiotherapy is not available.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach said the expert group recommended the best way to provide cancer care was to have a central Dublin system with regional "centres of excellence".
Meanwhile, some of the kings and queens of industry got down and dirty on the shop floor in the Irish Cancer Society's annual Daffodil Day. Pat McCann, CEO of the Jury's Doyle Group, was feeling the heat as he mopped out toilets and cleaned rooms to help raise funds.
