Radiotherapy plan - The buck stops with Harney

In contrast with this country’s performance in education, in which we have been spending comparatively less, the country’s performance in health, with more money, has been dismal. In 2005 the national radiotherapy plan was launched with the target date of 2011.

Most cancer patients have to travel to Dublin, Cork or Galway for radiotherapy, but the plan is designed to provide new centres in Waterford, Limerick and the north-west.

The plan also includes provisions to increase the capacities of existing centres.

Health Minister Mary Harney and Professor Brendan Drumm, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), seem to be on a collision course after Professor Drumm appeared to accept a leaked report that the target date should be put back by four years to 2015.

He blamed the delay on the complexity of involving the public-private partnership process (PPP) in the €500 million plan.

The PPP was introduced to simplify and speed up the whole process, but it is being used as an excuse for further delays. The minister has called a meeting between officials of her department and the HSE this week to thrash out their differences, but she made it clear that she is not prepared to accept the proposed delay, because the original deadline was realistic.

Elsewhere, the provision of new facilities has been enhanced and speeded up by the involvement of the private sector. That was the aim of involving the PPP in the first place.

People in the HSE have been paying themselves performance bonuses. What we are witnessing in this instance is a dismal performance for which the minister is ultimately responsible.