It is likely to be another eight years before a Government plan to provide a complete network of radiotherapy services for cancer patients across the State is finally delivered on, it has emerged.
The plan to provide the network was announced by the Minister for Health Mary Harney in 2005 and it was envisaged then that the plan would be delivered on by 2011.
However, earlier this year it became clear through leaked documentation that it could take three years longer than expected to deliver on the plan if it was done, as Ms Harney planned, by way of public private partnership (PPP). That would have resulted in the project not being completed until 2014.
The leaked documentation showed this message had been relayed to a board meeting of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in December 2006 by the director of the project, Tony O'Brien.
Ms Harney said, however, in January when this news broke that the HSE was examining options to speed up delivery of the plan. Neither she nor HSE management accepted this delayed timeframe.
The Irish Times has now learned that following a re-examination of the timeframe for the project, it has not been possible to speed up its delivery.
In fact, the re-examination has found it may take even longer to deliver on the plan than had been suggested earlier this year and it may be 2015 before the project is completed.
The review to see if the project could be speeded up looked at whether or not some elements of the €500 million project should be taken out of the PPP model. It was decided this could not be done as the money for it would then have to come from State coffers. "There isn't the money to do it other than by way of PPP," an informed source said.
Under the PPP model, a private company will be sought by way of tender to build the new radiotherapy facilities and service the equipment within them. Their capacity will then be leased to the public sector, which will also staff the facilities.
It is now likely to be late next year before the State will even be able to tender for private operators to build the centres.
The plan announced by Ms Harney in 2005 involved the provision of 23 additional linear accelerators (the equipment that delivers the radiotherapy) to increase the capacity to provide treatment at four large centres.
Two were to be in Dublin, at St James's and Beaumont hospitals, and one each in Cork and Galway. These would be backed up by satellite centres in Waterford and Limerick. The plan also involved making arrangements for patients in the northwest to receive their treatment at Belfast City Hospital.
Some elements of the plan will be delivered on earlier than others, but again the deadline for extra interim radiotherapy facilities at St James's and Beaumont hospitals was pushed back from 2009 to 2010 while the review of the financing of the project took place. It was originally expected these would be provided by 2008.
Reacting to the news, John McCormack, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, said the delays were a disgrace. It was always known the larger project would take years but "the saving grace" was the fact that interim facilities which would double the capacity of the public system to provide radiotherapy would be delivered on quickly.
"The Irish Cancer Society is very angry about this . . . we were completely misled in 2005 about this," he added.
"The waiting lists for people in Ireland for radiotherapy are immoral. There is a 20-week waiting list for men with prostate cancer. It causes anger and frustration and it shouldn't be allowed today in 2007."