Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Twomey on tabling this motion. I am pleased to see the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, here. As I drove here today I heard an advertisement on the radio extolling the virtues of BreastCheck and inviting women to apply, but it was of no use to the 57,598 women in Connacht, Tipperary North Riding and County Clare. There are no BreastCheck facilities in those areas and there will not be. A total of 150 women aged between 50 and 64 years of age in that cohort of women have the potential to contract the disease. For every subsequent year between 70 and 80 women will be so diagnosed. That is a potential death sentence for those women. Why five years ago were women in an area around Dublin and the midlands given the opportunity to come forward for BreastCheck while those in the rest of the country were sent to the back of the queue? How can that be justified? Women are infuriated by this. If the women about whom I am speaking can pay for a check, they will get it, but what about the thousands of women who cannot pay for it? These women are condemned as second-class citizens.

The Government and the Minister for Health and Children are involved in a PR stunt. They are giving the impression throughout the country that the service is available to everyone. Every now and again, a Minister promotes this idea which everyone knows is very important when women reach that stage in their life. However, the money is not being put into the system. Those involved in the national screening programme and I believe that if funding was made available, every area would be covered within the next year. There is no need to further test the waters in this area. This has been going on since 1998. All the facilities and procedures have been put in place.

The Minister of State is being most unfair to the 57,000 women who live in the area I know best, namely, Connacht, Tipperary North Riding and County Clare. Funding is available to the Minister and the Government to provide this service because Exchequer returns the week before last indicate the Government never had more money at its disposal. It is not good enough to say to that cohort of women, who have reared their families and helped this economy, that they must wait for this service until 2007, 2008, 2009 and God knows how long more. There will be a backlash as a result of this and I am pleased to have had an opportunity to make my views on this important matter known to the Government parties. People are not prepared to gamble with their lives. It would be different if everyone was in a financial position to pay for a breast check, but that is not the case.

It will be interesting tomorrow night to see what Members will do when the Government parties vote on this matter. They will take a different stance from the message they portray when they are in the constituencies throughout the country. We will see the colour of their money when they vote. Many of them are giving the impression that this matter will be solved within the next year, but my understanding is that people in the west, who should be able to have such a check tomorrow morning, cannot expect a free breast check until 2008 or 2009, which is a disgrace.

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