Ms Fiona Murphy:

Absolutely. In the case of all three of the cancers we screen for, the disease is twice as likely to be detected at an early stage for people who come through screening as opposed to where the disease is detected through the symptomatic route and referral by GP. The two cancer screening programmes that help prevent cancer are the bowel and cervical programmes. In the case of cervical cancer, the rate of the disease in Ireland was such that 15 out of every 100,000 women would develop it. Since the screening programme was introduced, that is down to just over ten, which is remarkable over that period.

The introduction of the human papillomavirus, HPV, vaccine was an absolute game changer. Over the course of the next few years, we will move to a rate of four per 100,000. We have modelled that out with the help of Australian researchers. We have set 2040 as the date by which we will reach what is called elimination. That means making the disease really rare, or getting it down to four per 100,000 women. We have now started to see the first set of girls who were vaccinated coming through for screening at age 25. Among that cohort, there has been a significant drop in the rate of high-grade disease. In the years before vaccination, the rate of high-grade disease had been growing. It has not just levelled off but come down as a result of vaccination.

One of the three pillars of cervical cancer elimination is to get 90% of girls vaccinated. We are nearly there but not quite. Any awareness-raising we can do in that regard is always very welcome. The second pillar is that 75% of women are screened.

The third is that 90% are treated appropriately, which we also meet.

The screened figure is interesting because we have an overall rate of 73% uptake of screening, but it somewhat masks what is going on underneath. The figure used to be 79% but when we raised the age in 2020 the overall percentage went down to 73% because those aged between 60 and 65 years are least likely to come. Of those aged between 25 and 29 years who are eligible, 87% have come for screening, which is fantastic. This is down to the work of our sample-takers, GP practices and practice nurses who encourage women to come for screening at the age of 25. We still want older women to come for screening. We did a big campaign last year to encourage the post-menopausal group of women to come for a screening, especially if they had never had one. It is the same message that we have for bowel screening. It is never too late. Even if people have not taken up the first screening invitation, they can take a later one. It is still worth it. Even at a later age, people can reduce their risk of cancer by coming for screening.