The same amount of money has being given by the State to the GAA since 1997 as has been devoted to the provision of cancer services, it was claimed yesterday.
Dr Jerry Cowley TD said the Government's priorities were totally wrong when it allocated the same resources to a sporting organisation as to tackling a disease that kills one in four.
He said a letter he had received from the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, showed €103 million had been spent on cancer services between 1997 and 2002.
Dr Cowley is planning a march on the Dáil and Government Buildings on March 29th to highlight his concern. He is also angry at the Government's failure to extend BreastCheck to the south and west and at inadequate radiotherapy provision.
It was ridiculous, he said, that BreastCheck had started out as a pilot project in the midlands and east, given that international evidence showed it could cut mortality rates by between 20 and 30 per cent. "It was done for financial reasons, and it has cost lives," he said.
Those taking part in the march, he said, would "target" the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, more than the Minister for Health "because he's just not giving the money he should be giving to health".
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health rebutted Dr Cowley's claims in relation to cancer funding. She said that since 1997 to date €400 million had been allocated to cancer services.