Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I thank the Tánaiste for that reply. As she knows this is something that I am particularly anxious about. When it was introduced in 2000 BreastCheck covered half the population. It is now 2006, however, and it will be 2009 before the full roll-out is completed, according to BreastCheck. There is no other term for this but cancer care apartheid. I have calculated that at least 200 women have died in the south and west since BreastCheck was rolled out for half the population. That is a disgrace, considering the position in other countries. This is not rocket science, as the Tánaiste has conceded. This information has been available for 20 years and it is a terrible disgrace that BreastCheck was allowed to cover half the country and not the other half. On my calculations more than 200 more women will have died by 2009, who need not have. I know the Tánaiste says the Department has talked to the Galway Clinic, which offered to intervene in 2003. If that offer had been taken up, at least 150 more women would be alive today. The excuse then was that BreastCheck was an analog service and the Galway Clinic's service was digital. BreastCheck has upgraded its service to Galway Clinic level, however, and is now digital. I am asking the Tánaiste how she can let those 200 women die who need not. It is a question of money. Money was available for all sorts of matters, the wasteful PPARS system, the horse racing industry and all types of stupid things. We are talking about real lives here.

It is not Galway Clinic that is saying this, but the Department of Health and Children. This is the same Department that said that this must be done on a phased basis, as it was so complicated. The complication is how the service is available to half the population and not the other half. I ask the Tánaiste to please save the lives of those 250 women. She has the power to intervene. Has she the will to do it? It can be done.

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