Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Twomey for putting this motion before the House and facilitating a debate on such an important health issue. A great deal of money has been wasted on electronic voting, Abbottstown and Punchestown, and has been scattered like confetti at election time. Promises have been made yet one of the major issues, the health service and, in particular in the context of this motion, women's health have been taken for granted. In my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny a roll-out of the BreastCheck programme and the national cervical screening programme was promised but it has not happened.

People took this political promise in good faith before the last general election and it has been thrown back in their faces almost three years later. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and Children and local government representatives promised a radiotherapy service for the south east, based at Waterford Regional Hospital, in advance of the 2002 general election, but that has been abandoned and there is no sign of its implementation.

People have taken to the streets in Waterford and the south east to ask for basic facilities for preventative medicine in the form of these two programmes. The failure to implement the programmes shows the low priority the Government assigns to women's health. It is unacceptable when it has significant resources at its disposal that such low priority is given to a modest scheme that would help provide early and accurate diagnosis of cancer in women.

Families worry about health. No family has escaped tragedy of some kind, one of the greatest of which, apart from a sudden death, is the prolonged worry about and fear of cancer, its treatment and the services available. This trauma which women in particular have suffered, for want of the early diagnosis these schemes could provide, indicates the callousness of the Department, the Minister for Health and Children and the Government in general.

The former Minister for Health and Children commissioned many consultancy groups and reports but regrettably took no action. The present Minister seeks to hide behind a commitment to develop cancer services further without indicating the timescale for the implementation of the two programmes. The Government should stop making promises about these schemes. They should implement the programmes promised years ago, particularly before the last general election. I call on them to roll out the BreastCheck programme for my constituents in Carlow-Kilkenny and implement a proper public radiotherapy service for the people of the south east on the campus of Waterford Regional Hospital without delay.

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