Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

As the Deputy is aware, we have mobile units that go to more remote areas to do the screening. Not everybody has to come to the big centre. Among the people I referred to earlier, one person in particular whom I met last weekend lives within a mile and a half or two miles of St. Vincent's Hospital where BreastCheck is located in Dublin. There are different issues. I am not taking away from the transport issue but we do have mobile screening facilities and clearly they are of great use in the more peripheral areas of the country. Some 98% of people do not require any follow-up. Thankfully they get good news after being screened. Only 2% of people may come for follow-up treatment.

Breast surgery takes place in a large number of centres. All the evidence would suggest that a unit should carry out at least 100 operations a year and that it is not safe for the procedure to be carried out in a facility that is smaller. That is why I asked Professor Niall O'Higgins, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a group of experts to make recommendations in regard to this area in particular. The Minister for Health and Children of the day and the Department should at least make sure that surgery takes place under safe conditions. We cannot stand over a situation where a patient's outcome is disimproved because an operation is not taking place in an appropriate setting.

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