Sir, – Like Anja Nohlen (March 12th) I was horrified to read of the treatment of cancer patients in the North West (Eoin Butler, Magazine, March 9th). It beggars belief that Minister for Health James Reilly would suggest public transport, and a five-hour journey at that , as being a suitable way for patients to access vital treatment. The Taoiseach should forthwith sack the Minister, together with any officials or experts who advised him that this was even an option. This treatment of seriously ill people is barbaric. “The bus will have to pull over nine or 10 times before it even reaches Tuam” so “ most of the time passengers will have to go behind a well sheltered tree or a hedge at the side of the road”. These are people and it is 2013 not 1813 !
Doubtless, this week we will see the usual exodus of politicians and officials to distant places. These junkets cost money. Recently, it was reported that a councillor representing Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, whose permanent home is in Kerry, was able to claim hundreds of euros in expenses to travel to a conference in Co Kerry (Homke News, February 18th). Such disgraceful waste must stop, and stop now. The money saved could at least pay for a bus with a toilet on board which would make the journey from Letterkenny to Galway a little more tolerable for those involved, and the HSE should be told to provide cancer services in the North West without delay. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW WALLACE,
Ballacolla,
Abbeyleix,
Co Laois.