A report on the development of radiotherapy services to be published today recommends the State should have just four radiation treatment centres - two in the eastern region, and one each in Galway and Cork.
All four units should be located at "supra-regional cancer centres", the report says - a recommendation that is likely to be politically controversial. While the report recommends a major expansion of treatment centres for cancer patients it will cause disquiet in areas such as the south-east where campaigners had demanded a treatment unit.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was presented with a petition with 50,000 signatures calling for the installation of a radiotherapy unit in Waterford and was jostled by protestors during an election campaign visit to the southeast. Cancer patients have also expressed concern about travelling long distances for treatment.
The report identifies major deficiencies in the provision of radiotherapy services. The Republic has the lowest number of specialists and the highest number of cases per consultant in the European Union.
Noting there are just eight permanent consultants in radiation oncology, the report says: "It is immediately evident that there is a considerable shortfall in consultant numbers . . . This equates with 2.5 radiation oncologists per million population, the lowest in Western Europe".
Norway and the US have 14 specialists per million people.
"For medical staffing requirements to address the expected increase in cancer incidence in the forthcoming decade, nine to 12 radiation oncologists will be required per million of population," the report adds. It says this will enable 250 new patients to be treated per radiation oncologist per year.
The Development of Radiation Oncology Services in Ireland report identifies Cork University Hospital and University College Hospital Galway as the locations for the radiotherapy centres in the west and south, but says the locations for the service development in the eastern region have not been identified.
St Luke's hospital, Rathgar, is the current location for radiotherapy services for Dublin and the east.
The report refers to the need for a "backbone" for the expansion of services. "The [expert] group believes that the development of these centres as a clinical network is of paramount importance, and will in the shortest possible timeframe begin to address the profound deficit in radiation therapy services that has been identified."
Each treatment unit will serve more than one health board area. The Galway unit will serve all of the Western Health Board, 50 per cent of the North Western Health Board and a third of the catchment area of the Mid-Western Health Board.
The Dublin South radiotherapy service will look after 70 per cent of the population of the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
It will serve the Midland Health Board, 50 per cent of the South Eastern Health Board and a third of people in the Mid-Western Health Board.