Public confidence in the healthcare system has been shaken by recent controversies in women's cancer, the interim director of the Cancer Control Programme, Professor Tom Keane has admitted this evening.
In an interview on RTÉ, Prof Keane said it was vital that confidence was rebuilt and he said this would be one of the major jobs of the Cancer Control Programme.
"The first point is people talk about centres as if they didn't exist, we are already well on the way towards having centres of excellence, but clearly we're not there yet," Prof Keane said.
He went on to add that assurances had been given that additional resources would be made available, although he added that recruiting some of the consultants would "be a challenge".
"The Minister of Health has made it very clear last week that additional resources will be provided. I'm currently doing an inventory of what resources will be required and where we have to place them," Prof Keane said.
Prof Keane said he would not be reviewing the decision to concentrate cancer services at eight centres of excellence and confirmed there would not be a ninth centre in the northwest for Sligo and Mayo.
"I'm accepting the recommendations that have been approved by government and by the HSE. It is not my job to go back and question the strategy".
He said patients may have to travel for the initial diagnosis and management but that many aspects of the treatment could be provided locally.
"You won't have to travel for the totality of your cancer care and that's been lost, I think, in the discussion . . . [it is] the initial diagnosis that's so crucial in cancer."