Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle for providing me with the opportunity to raise this very important matter.

We all agree breast cancer is a terrible killer. There is no known way to prevent it. However, it is very treatable if detected early, according to the BreastCheck website. Unfortunately, health apartheid exists here, where half the population has had a service since 2000. The death rate from cancer can be cut by 20% to 30% by breast screening women aged 50 to 64. This has happened in Northern Ireland where between 1994 and 2000 the breast cancer rate fell by 20%. The same has happened in Scotland, the USA and all over Europe except for the south and west of Ireland. I have been spearheading a campaign for the national extension of BreastCheck for some years now.

Some 700 women die from breast cancer every year. About 100 need not have died, but did, in the south and west. The figure is at least 65, but due to the 30% factor, it is more than that — because of the negligence of Government to extend BreastCheck nationally. Based on those figures more than 300 women will die before BreastCheck is extended to the south and west. It is a national scandal. Today in the newspaper, Professor Michael Kerin, who previously directed the BreastCheck service, but who now works at University College Hospital, Galway, says that one in five women with cancer on the east coast have had mastectomies — he previously worked at the Mater hospital in Dublin. However one in every two women in the west has a mastectomy, and that is a disgrace.

In my maiden speech in the Dáil in 2002 I spoke of the need for BreastCheck. In February 2003 I arranged for the BreastCheck board and executive to appear before the Joint Committee on Health and Children. On 28 March 2003, together with the cancer campaigner, Ms Jane Bailey, I organised a march on the Dáil for the national extension of BreastCheck. The national extension of the programme was announced within 48 hours of the march, but we are still waiting for it. Professor Kerin is scandalised. He says the lack of a free screening service means that many women in the west have advanced disease by the time the cancer is diagnosed. The lump is much bigger. I know families where loved ones have died because of the lack of BreastCheck and it is a terrible tragedy. Exactly 296 women have died already since 2000 because of the lack of BreastCheck. Another 260 will definitely die in the south and west. It need not be like this, however. Why does the Government not do something about it?

On 11 February 2003, the Galway Clinic offered a BreastCheck service to the Government. If this offer had been accepted, 195 women who are now dead would be alive today. Their families would still have their mothers, aunts, nieces or grandmothers. The Government declined the offer because the clinic was offering a digital service, while the BreastCheck service was analogue. BreastCheck has now changed over to a digital service so there is no excuse to delay the extension of the programme.

If a drug were discovered that could save the lives of 260 women, we would all want it to be made available. However, all that is needed in this case is money. It will be 2009 before all eligible women will be screened and the cycle completed even though BreastCheck will come on stream in 2007. Surely BreastCheck can be fast-tracked to ensure that the lives of at least some women can be saved. It would even be worthwhile making use of the service offered by the Galway Clinic or using the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

In 2003, the chief executive officer of the Western Health Board, Dr. Sheila Ryan, stated it was unfair of any health board member to underestimate the Government's commitment to the BreastCheck programme. She stated she expected BreastCheck activities in the west and south to commence in mid-2005, but it is now 2006.

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