Budget 2022: We need to approach cancer care with the same ingenuity we did Covid-19

Without the necessary capacity, workforce and resources needed to meet demand, underpinned by a new approach to cancer care, all anyone has been able to do is to try and stop a flood with a leaky bucket

Rachel Morrogh of the Irish Cancer Society: 'This unacceptable reality in our health services is not simply down to the pandemic. The fact of the matter is the cancer system has been struggling due to long-standing vulnerabilities for many years predating the pandemic.'

Cancer care is in crisis at the moment, and we need to apply every bit as much of the support, focus and ingenuity that has been evident in how the Covid pandemic has been dealt with to turn things around.

Only two short years ago it would have been unimaginable that care for cancer patients would be disrupted to the extent it has been over the past 18 months.