The Joint Committee on Health has heard that vital supports for cancer patients and survivors are being put in danger by a lack of central funding.
The Alliance of Community Cancer Support Centres and Services was formed last year and received €3 million in one-off funding in Budget 2024.
The funds will be allocated among 16 members who have passed National Cancer Control Programme quality control.
There are now 26 full members, with total operating costs of €11.1 million this year.
The charities say core funding is essential to enable them to continue to provide free, local support to those who have contracted cancer.
The alliance is asking for €5.5 million in Budget 2025.
Richard Flaherty, CEO of Cancer Care West, said there is a perception that the charities are part of the HSE and so are fully funded.
He emphasised that without at least some stable funding, these cancer services will become unsustainable, and pointed to an increase of over a third in the numbers of patients using their services in the first four months of this year.
Demand is up 36%, he revealed.
The centres in the alliance have operating costs of between €20,0000 and €2 million a year.
“We really feel that the €3 million is the first step on a journey,” Mr Flaherty said.
Funding of €5.5 million in Budget 2025 would be “a drop in the ocean” of the €23 billion health budget, and would be “enormous” value for money.
He cited the case of a young mother in Galway, whose cancer diagnosis was “ringing in her ear” and who went straight to Cancer Care West before even talking to her family.
The charity “supported her through her diagnosis, her treatment and her family after that,” Mr Flaherty said.
“There’s nowhere else for these people to go when they get that news.”
Charities are happy to secure additional funding themselves, Mr Flaherty added, even if “there’s lot of great causes out there,” which makes fund-raising difficult.
“Absolutely, we are seeing a drop in fund-raising,” Alliance member John Conroy said.
Gemma Fort said that the operating budget at Recovery Haven Kerry Cancer Support House has “increased hugely”, largely due to a rise in the number of people using the services since the Covid pandemic.
She underlined the need to provide adequate, stable funding to enable the charities to adhere “to good governance”.
