Victor Boyhan urges action on head, neck and throat cancer
Victor Boyhan addressed colleagues in the upper house on a debate focused on head, neck and throat cancer and related services, calling on members to keep the issue live and push ministers and party leaders for progress. He welcomed the minister, Department of Health officials, guests from the Distinguished Gallery and praised Rebecca, Gerard and Helen for sharing their lived experience.
Appeal to colleagues
Boyhan asked members of all sides to raise the issue at parliamentary party meetings, to bring it to the Taoiseach and to Cabinet colleagues, and to use their contacts with ministers to press for recruitment, resources and funding. He urged members to prepare parliamentary questions and to maintain pressure ahead of the Joint Therapeutics Committee on Health.
Acknowledgement of contributors
He thanked the minister and officials from the Department of Health, the University Dental Hospital representatives, Senator Clonan and other senators and staff who helped prepare briefing documents, and he applauded the personal testimonies given by Rebecca, Gerard and Helen from the Distinguished Gallery. Boyhan described the presence of patients and professionals in the chamber as meaningful and important to the debate.
Focus of the debate
Boyhan emphasised that while cancer services face many demands, the debate that night concentrated on the speciality of head, neck and throat cancer and the specific issues around diagnosis and care. He said the lived experience presented in the chamber made it easier to communicate the concerns and highlighted the practical impact on policymaking discussions.
Next steps urged
He warned against complacency and asked colleagues not to simply applaud the debate and shelve the motion, but to keep the matter active through parliamentary mechanisms and political engagement. Boyhan appealed for continued collaboration across the House to convert the debate into practical progress on funding, recruitment and policy for the affected speciality.
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Thank you, Coherleck. Well, firstly, I want to welcome the Minister here. I want to welcome the officials from the Department of Health. And I particularly want to wish and welcome our guests in the Distinguished Gallery. And, of course, Rebecca, it's so great to see you and looking so well here today. And to thank Gerard and Helen for sharing their story, your story, because clearly I don't think that Senator Crocker would have ventured in here without your blessing. And I think knowing you or knowing about you and having an opportunity to talk to you in the past, but also Gerard and Helen, I think it's a remarkable story. And I think when you tell your story in here, I think it's a very powerful testimony when you shine a light on a particular issue. But I also want to thank the people from the University Dental Hospital. And it's not too often that so many distinguished, capable, able experts come to the Distinguished Gallery and bear witness to the debate that is in this House, particularly in relation to that. And I'm not going to be a cynic, but I'm long enough here to know that many motions are debated, but they tend to go on a shelf and we hear no more about them. I particularly am welcoming the proposal by Senator Clonan, also a member of the Independent Group. And might I say we all on this side of the House now are all members of the Shannett Independent Group. And I'm very proud to lead that group and I'm very proud of their achievements. And we do keep our focus very much as advocates. We're politicians, but we're also advocates. And we advocate for particular issues. And we unite and work together to highlight and shine a light in particular areas. I want to also take this opportunity to thank Senator Crockwell's staff, because I know how committed they are to you, Senator Crockwell, and to the causes that you champion. And I think that is important. And the level of input that has come in the preparation of this has come from their office. It, of course, has come from Rebecca's lived experience, but has also come from my knowledge, Senator McDool, and Samantha, and their office. And, you know, the preparation of the briefing documents and bringing people on board. So I think it's very important, as the Minister said, the Government are not opposing. But why wouldn't the Government oppose it? How could the Government oppose it, quite frankly? But I want to thank the Minister for reading what was a difficult, long, official, departmental, no doubt, response that clearly had the approval of Minister Jennifer Carrickman-Neill, which would be the right thing anyway. So I want to thank you for going and taking us through all of that. But what more do I want? I want to make an ask. I want to make an ask of the members of this House, of all sides, who have parliamentary party meetings. So it happens you have one tonight, or some will have a parliamentary party meeting tonight. I have no doubt there will be other things exercising their mind tonight. But what I do say is, please, please, keep this issue live. Please bring it to your party leaders. Please bring it to the Taoiseach. Please bring it to the Cabinet members that you work with, you network with. They respect you. You respect them. You're in government. And we will, of course, engage with government ministers that engage with us all the time, too. Because for people looking in sometimes from outside of here, they somehow forget, you know, this is a political establishment. We collaborate well together. We work well together. So it is incumbent on all of us, in all sides of this House, 60 members of Shannon-Aaron to use our contacts with government ministers to progress this thing, to keep on the focus, as Sandra Clonan has said, in a few months' time with the Joint Therapeutics Committee on Health. I think that's important. But also to continue to prepare and ask our TDs to prepare parliamentary questions in government and in the opposition, and to highlight the issue. But let's not go out of here feeling pleased that we've articulated something that we all know about, because everyone in this room is convinced. We need to get out of here. We need to convince other people. We need to convince the policymakers. We need to convince the people that hold the strings in terms of recruitment, resources, and funding. So that's important. And there are many aspects to cancer, and many demands on cancer services. But today we're focusing on, of course, the head, neck, and throat cancer, and all of the issues around that. And that is really important. And that speciality is a focus of our debate here today. So again, I want to thank Sandra Crockwell for sharing what is a family story, a family experience, a lived experience. To thank Rebecca, that has allowed her story, her journey, to be shared with us. And it makes it so much, shall we say, easier to communicate when you are talking to the person, exchanging with the person, and sharing their concerns. So you're brave, you're courageous, but you're a champion. And tonight we're having this debate basically around your experience, and the professionals that are accompanying you here tonight, and supporting you. And that's a great privilege for both of you. It's a great privilege for us in this House, for you to be present here. You have made a difference to the debate tonight, for many of us here a long, long time. And when the people who are directly involved come and sit amongst us in the upper house of the Oireachtas, the upper house of the Oireachtas, I think it's very special and very meaningful, and no doubt we'll have an opportunity to chat afterwards. But look, to thank everyone involved, to thank the officials, Minister, to thank you. And I know there are many demands, but I know you to be a decent person. I know you to be a champion, particularly of cancer rights and health rights. And I think we're all on the one page. But let's not go asleep, let's tap ourselves on the back, and think it's all done. Today is the beginning. And let's keep soldiering on until we get what we seek to achieve for everyone affected by this illness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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