Sinn Féin has accused the Government of underfunding cancer services, leading to worse outcomes for patients.
The party Spokesperson on Finance told the Dáil that the Health Service Executive had sought an additional €20 million in this year's Budget to improve cancer services but it received zero.
Pearse Doherty also said that radiation equipment was lying idle in hospitals with forced machine closures because of staff shortages.
He said the Irish Cancer Society had yesterday told the Oireachtas Committee on Health that cancer services were underfunded for five of the past seven years and that Ireland's outcomes had either stagnated or dis-improved.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the Government had invested very significantly in cancer service over the past four years with €7.7 billion extra provided to the HSE compared with 2019.
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He also said the mortality rate from cancer had dropped 11% over the past decade with female breast cancer deaths down 19%.
He said additional €40bn in funding had been provided for new treatments and the HSE had authorised 148 new cancer drugs.
Mr Martin insisted that Ireland was not a "laggard" in cancer services.
He added that just because somebody asked for additional funding, it would not necessarily be granted without a demand for efficiencies.
Provision of cancer care remains a challenge
The director of the cancer programme for the west and northwest has said the provision of cancer care remains a challenge, as does the provision of all healthcare across the country at the moment.
Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Professor Michael Kerin said there are significant infrastructure and staffing problems in cancer programmes throughout cancer centres.
He said Ireland had "improved greatly as a country" mainly due to the formation of the National Cancer Control programme and the centralisation of cancer services.
"Notwithstanding that, we have ongoing major challenges," he added. "The twin challenges area infrastructure and staffing."
Prof Kerin said that because all of the cancer centres are located in major general hospitals, they will be displaced when the emergency programme gets very busy.
He said they have managed to get the west of Ireland's cancer centre on the National Development Plan, which "needs to be delivered".
"I believe if we have appropriate infrastructure, we will then be able to provide optimal cancer care and that involves not having the cancer patient in competition with the emergency patient for care."
Prof Kerin also said he believed there was a need for an extra school of radiography.
This follows claims by the Irish Cancer Society to the Oireachtas Health Committee that "expensive equipment is lying idle in several hospitals" due to staff shortages.
Prof Kerin said a radiation oncology building had recently opened in Galway. While they had been able to recruit radiation oncology technical people to deliver care locally he said there were problems elsewhere.
"There are challenges in Dublin and there are very significant issues with radiography support throughout the country at the moment to the point where we need an extra school of radiography, I would say."
The HSE yesterday acknowledged difficulties with the recruitment of radiotherapists.
