Minister for Health Mary Harney is to meet her counterpart in Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward, on Tuesday to discuss proposals which would allow cancer patients in the northwest to receive treatment in Belfast.
The two ministers will also discuss proposals for a cross-Border initiative on suicide prevention. Sources said last night this could include plans to commission a television series in the area.
Talks on the provision of radiotherapy services for patients from the northwest in a new unit at Belfast City Hospital have been under way at official level for some months.
For many years cancer support groups have complained about patients from the northwest having to travel frequently for several hours to Dublin for radiation treatment.
While the two ministers will hold talks on the use of the new Belfast City Hospital facility on Tuesday, it is not expected that an agreement will be concluded at that stage.
Last July in her new strategy for the development of radiotherapy services around the country, Ms Harney said she would seek to reach an agreement with authorities in Northern Ireland to allow cancer patients from the northwest receive radiotherapy in Belfast rather than having to travel to Dublin.
In July the Government also gave a commitment to look further at the possibility of the provision of a satellite radiotherapy service in the northwest which would be linked to the centre in Belfast.
Ms Harney told the Dáil last Wednesday that a new radiotherapy service to be developed at Beaumont hospital in Dublin, under the Government's new strategy, would also be available for patients from the northwest of the country.
She said the precise patient referral pattern would be a matter for the Health Service Executive.
Ms Harney and Mr Woodward will attend a conference on health equality issues North and South that is being held in Belfast.
The conference will hear details of a new three-year plan to tackle inequalities in health care throughout the island of Ireland.
