Radiotherapy: The Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney is understood to be considering selling off St Luke's Hospital in Dublin and relocating the cancer services it provides to St James's Hospital.
The proposal is one of a number expected to be brought to Cabinet next week by Ms Harney in the context of a discussion on radiotherapy services and how they should be provided.
An expert report on the development of radiotherapy services, published in October 2003, recommended the cancer treatment be provided at two unidentified centres in Dublin, one on the north side and one on the south side, and one each in Cork and Galway.
It also said the three modalities of cancer treatment - surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy - should be provided on one site for best outcomes, meaning the national treatment centre at St Luke's Hospital, Rathgar, could not continue as it is.
The then Minister for Health Micheál Martin asked the Department of Health's chief medical officer, Dr Jim Kiely, to advise him on where the service should be sited in Dublin.
Dr Kiely has, along with representatives of the Royal College of Radiologists in London, the US National Institutes of Health and the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, considered submissions from several Dublin hospitals which want to provide radiotherapy.
It was reported earlier this year that the experts believed the service should be provided at Beaumont and St James's Hospitals.
Meanwhile, Ms Harney's plan is also understood to involve proposals to buy radiotherapy treatment from private hospitals to make up for the lack of radiotherapy services provided by public hospitals at present.
Huge campaigns have been mounted by groups in the north-west and southeast for radiotherapy services in their regions.
Developers have already unveiled plans to build private hospitals providing radiotherapy in Waterford and Letterkenny and these may be used by the State when they come on stream.
Radiotherapy services are also being built in Limerick on a site provided by the State. It is being funded by the Mid-Western Hospitals Development Trust and will be run in conjunction with the Mater Private Hospital.
Ms Harney said last February that "you can't have radiotherapy facilities everywhere". She said "safety, practice, experience demands that you have to do this on a network basis, but certainly I have a lot of sympathy with those who believe that Waterford, the southeast, should have radiotherapy facilities".