Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

This matter concerns the extension of BreastCheck to the rest of the country and not only to the Dublin area. I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter but it is time the senior Minister started to take these issues more seriously.

A newspaper article stated:

The BreastCheck screening programme is being extended to three more counties, the Minister for Health, Mr. Martin, has announced.

The service, aimed at women aged between 50 and 64, has up to this only been available in the Eastern Regional Health Authority . . . and Midland Health Board areas. It will now be extended to Carlow, Wexford and Kilkenny [and the south].

That statement appeared in a newspaper article of 11 February 2003 and it is now 9 February 2005. However, we should not be surprised about the failure of the Department of Health and Children and the former Minister to meet that commitment. Despite the fact that the current Minister for Health and Children has been in office for a considerable period, the fact the promises made by the previous Minister, Deputy Martin, are unfulfilled is scandalous. BreastCheck must be made available to women all over the country. Anything less puts women's lives at risk.

The previous Minister, Deputy Martin, announced the rollout of BreastCheck to the Cork area in 2002 prior to the last general election. As soon as the election was called work on this stopped. Premises for the facilities had been purchased at the South Infirmary-Victoria Hospital and it was intended that three mobile units would operate from that unit in the general Munster area. It appears that the site brief, which includes the BreastCheck unit, was only completed in April 2004, some two years after it was originally announced. From April 2004, it would take a further 18 months for contracts to be signed. This is yet another unacceptable delay. This delay means that some women will not receive the treatment to which they are entitled. That is a straightforward fact. If there is not early diagnosis of such cancer, women will not get the treatment they need. Given the statistics that 600 women die every year from breast cancer, any further delays are unacceptable.

I hope the current Minister is not deliberately delaying the availability of this service so that she can once again announce it in the run-up to the next general election. It appears from the executive officer of the South Infirmary-Victoria Hospital, where the unit is to be based, that according to the Department of Finance the moneys for the BreastCheck unit will not be available until 2008. People will no longer by fooled by such promises.

All the evidence suggests that the BreastCheck programme is a tremendous success. There has been a 73% uptake rate among women invited for screening, which exceeds the target uptake to June 2000. The programme has exceeded its target for the diagnosing of cancer. In other words, BreastCheck works.

A recent report from Northern Ireland states that after ten years the evidence is clear that BreastCheck works and early diagnosis is vital in the fight against this disease which affects women. Most of these research pieces take approximately 30 years to be published, but it took only ten years to publish this one. Those involved in it were so convinced of the validity of the research that they published it.

Another newspaper article stated:

If ever there was a damning comment on how Ireland measures it medical priorities it is that we are spending more on eradicating disease in the farmyards than on breast cancer.

This fact emerged at an Oireachtas committee where BreastCheck, the cancer screening unit, said it needs €21 million to roll out its service nationwide.

It is a sign of the times, however, that badly needed funding has dried up, while this year €217 million will be spent on eradicating disease in farm animals.

As a result of the cutbacks, a nationwide expansion of the vital breast check service will not be achieved for years.

So, despite the Government's solemn commitment to underwrite this crucial service, tens of thousands of women are left facing a cancer risk. This means a service which saved the lives of many women is not yet available in Connacht or Munster.

What does that say about the priorities of a system that puts the eradication of animal disease before detection of cancer in women?

That newspaper article was from 14 February 2003. If the new Minister Health and Children has any clout or intends, unlike her predecessor, to make any fist of the Department, I advise her that the women of Munster can wait no longer for the provision of this service and they definitely cannot wait until 2008.

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