FIANNA FÁIL TDs who have expressed verbal support for the retention of breast cancer services at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar and Sligo General Hospital will be placed in a difficult position later this month when Fine Gael table a motion on the contentious issue in the Dáil.
Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael spokesman on Health, said those who had publicly rejected the transfer of cancer services to "centres of excellence" would have to "walk the walk" as opposed to "talking the talk" when the motion is discussed next week.
Dr Reilly, along with his party leader, Enda Kenny, and Mayo Oireachtas members, Michael Ring TD; John O'Mahony; Jim Higgins MEP; and Senator Paddy Burke, met clinicians at Mayo General Hospital last week.
Speaking afterwards, Dr Reilly said figures quoted by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, when she visited Castlebar the previous week, to justify the transfer of the cancer services from Castlebar to Galway, were inaccurate.
Dr Reilly claimed that 97 surgical procedures for cancer were carried out at Mayo General Hospital last year, not the 37 claimed by the Minister.
During her visit to Mayo, Ms Harney said the number of mastectomies last year fell short of the number of surgeries required for the Castlebar unit to remain a satellite unit of University College Hospital Galway (UCHG).
"Either she [Ms Harney] is being deliberately disingenuous or she is badly informed or misinformed," Dr Reilly said.
He said the 97 cases last year were documented with pathologists' reports so for the Minister to state otherwise was unbelievable.
Mr Kenny said the upcoming Dáil motion was the only facility available for a political intervention on the issue.
There was a precedent, he pointed out, in the fact that Willie O'Dea (the present Minister for Defence) had voted against his Fianna Fáil party on the issue of the closure of Barringtons Hospital in Limerick nine years ago.
The Fine Gael motion poses a dilemma for Beverley Flynn, the Mayo Fianna Fáil deputy, who was only recently readmitted to the party.
It all also, according to Jim Higgins MEP, represents a moment of truth for the Fianna Fáil representatives from the region who were voted into the new Dáil last year.
Fianna Fáil should get the message loud and clear that the public would "wreak vengeance" at the local election in 48 weeks' time due to the controversy over the cancer services issue, Mr Higgins said.