The Fine Gael spokesman on health suggested the appointment of a surgeon-general to report directly to the Dail on healthcare issues.

Mr Gay Mitchell said such a person, who would be a medical version of the Comptroller and Auditor General, would give an independent overview of how issues such as cancer treatment were being dealt with.

"Up to 1,000 people die annually because of inadequate cancer treatment, and Ireland's mortality rate from cancer is still above the EU average," Mr Mitchell said.

"The fact that two major hospitals in Dublin recently confirmed that they had to postpone potentially life-saving treatments for cancer patients to make way for non-cancer emergency admissions is, at a time of unprecedented wealth, an indictment of the Government's health policy."

He was speaking during a debate on his party's private member's motion condemning the Government for placing patients' lives at risk by its failure to implement and reach the targets set in the 1996 national cancer strategy.

He said that at the launch of Daffodil Day last year a consultant radiotherapist at St Luke's Hospital, Dublin, had painted a very unacceptable picture of the availability of radiotherapy services in Ireland.

"On average, only 16 per cent of cancer patients are receiving radiotherapy, despite the fact that up to 50 per cent of patients could benefit from it. It was pointed out that up to 1,000 people are dying because of inadequate treatment," he said.

One mother who needed chemotherapy for a cancerous lump on her neck had said her lifesaving treatment was cancelled each day for almost two weeks.

The effect of cancer on Irish society was now devastating. "One-third of all deaths in those aged under 65 means that 7,500 persons per year die from cancer in Ireland," Mr Mitchell said.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said he deplored the suggestion that patients' lives were being put at risk, adding that the motion was "opportunistic and calculated to undoubtedly cause concern among a most vulnerable patient group".

He outlined developments under the national cancer strategy, adding that the number of primary treatments for cancer had increased significantly annually since 1994.