Govt 'failing to support preventative health measures'

A leading medical expert has launched a stinging attack on what he says is the Government's failure to support preventative health measures.

Professor Luke Clancy says the Government is not serious about its own policy of creating a tobacco-free society because politicians are more focused on the next election than the next generation of Irish people.

He has also slammed the decision to scrap a planned cervical cancer vaccine for teenage girls that would have cost just €7m and he says would have prevented thousands of deaths.

Professor Clancy, who is due to address an international health conference in Dublin today, says the "very same Government is prepared to pay €54bn to bankers as part of the NAMA process".