Professor of Nonsense

Cllr. Jim Quinlan, Deputy Mayor Cobh Town Council

I am writing in response to the article in The Echo on Wednesday 4 May that referred to cancer rates in the Cobh urban area. The article included comments from a Professor Staines of D.C.U. His comments suggested that “social deprivation” was a significant reason why, according to NCRI statistics, Cobh has an almost 40% higher rate of cancer than the “national average”. He also suggested that the one million euro a baseline health study would cost would be better spent on providing facilities for young people. I will now explain why these comments are utter nonsense.

The professor claims that if “social deprivation” was taken into consideration in the cancer statistics the difference between statistics relating to Cobh  and the “national average” would be minimal. You will have noticed that I have been putting the term “national average” into inverted comas. This is because the NCRI statistics do not refer to a “national average”. The NCRI statistics refer to expected rates and an expected rate is independently calculated for each electoral area. The expected rate is calculated using all relevant data including population trends and social deprivation factors. Cobh has an almost 40% higher rate than expected taking this data (including “poverty”) into consideration. This makes complete nonsense of the professor’s statement that the difference would be “minimal” if “poverty” was taken into consideration, given that social deprivation or “poverty” has already been taken into consideration.

As to whether Cobh even has a serious social deprivation problem, in fact current live register figures suggest the opposite is true and that, in terms of unemployment, Cobh has significantly more favourable figures than almost all other towns in the county. Likewise, Cobh does not qualify for the numerous schemes and grants, such as RAPID, that are provided for areas of serious social deprivation.

With reference to the professor’s statement which suggested that there is a lack of facilities for young people in Cobh, I would also describe this statement as nonsense. Had the professor visited our town before making such a statement? We in Cobh are very proud of the wealth of facilities for young people in our town, from the many sports clubs and related facilities, dance classes, Cobh Youth Services, our fantasic Community Centre and Pool/Fitness Centre. We do not have it all but we do have a lot!

At last Monday’s monthly meeting of Cobh Town Council I issued an invitation to Professor Staines to visit Cobh and if he accepts, I will give him a courteous tour of our beautiful town and the many facilities for the youth of our town.

Finally, Cobh needs a Baseline Health Study to explain the high rate of cancer in our town and I hope that Minister Reilly and the relevant authorities will not be deflected by the comments of Professor Staines or by any other comments of that nature.