State spent ‘six times more on sports bodies than developing cancer services’

THE Government spent six times more money on sporting organisations last year than developing cancer services, Independent TD Dr Jerry Cowley said yesterday.

Sporting organisations got €161m while only €23.5m went to the development of cancer care services in 2002, Dr Cowley told the Dáil.

He accused the Government of deciding whether people live or die and he claimed there is a health apartheid operating here based on geography.“There is no radiotherapy unit in Waterford or Limerick and the €100m radiotherapy unit due to be completed in Galway this autumn has not yet got sanction for staffing,” Dr Cowley said.