People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has called for cancer services to be properly resourced and supported in his first speech since returning to the Dáil.
The Dún Laoghaire TD returned to the chamber for the first time since April after completing successful treatment for throat cancer.
During Leaders' Questions, Mr Boyd Barrett raised the issue of radiation oncology machines, which he said had "basically given me my life back".
He said: "It’s important to say everyone has a stake in that happening. 50% of people will have an encounter with cancer during their lives. 44,000 people will get a cancer diagnosis.
"The Irish Cancer Society made a whole series of requests pre-budget, it’s still not clear about whether any of those have been met to fully fund and resource the national cancer strategy.
"But there’s a very particular issue for me and the people who provided me with the care in St Luke’s in the area of radiation oncology machines. They're called linear accelerators and they've basically given me my life back."
Mr Boyd Barrett said half of those who get a cancer diagnosis every year will need these machines.
However, he said 35% of the machines, which are supposed to be replaced every ten years, are now 15-17 years old.
"40% will need to be replaced in the next five years, and this means there's a lot of discomfort, stress for patients and staff who need this lifesaving treatment," he said.
Mr Boyd Barrett called for a national radiotherapy replacement programme, where there is centralised oversight and procurement and ringfenced multi-annual funding going forward, "so they don’t have to come each year with a begging bowl for money to provide this absolutely vital machinery to save lives".
Responding, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers said it was important to take a step back and look at progress since the national cancer strategy was introduced.
He said a lot of the reforms introduced has yielded much greater outcomes for citizens across the country.
"What we’ve tried to do in recent years it to build and resource a public health system that responds to the need from a workforce perspective," he said.
Minister Chambers said in the last five years there has been an additional 30,000 healthcare workers.
He said Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was working with the HSE on developing an investment plan on the capital needs of the health system, some of which will relate to radiation oncology and treatment interventions around replacing equipment.
"We as a Government have prioritised funding our health system, more workers, more beds and technological improvements," he added.
