Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

This is breast cancer awareness month. The Department of Health and Children, the Cabinet committee on health and the HSE management work closely together. It is a big service that spreads throughout the country. Deputy Kenny has raised different aspects of it. I will confine my reply to breast cancer services. The development and improvement of diagnostic and treatment services for cancer patients, including breast cancer patients, is a major priority for the development of cancer services nationally. We have allocated a large amount of resources to the development of services for symptomatic breast cancer disease nationally. Practically all of those resources are for staff. I accept the BreastCheck service is not yet available everywhere, but we are committed to ensuring that it is rolled out to remaining regions in the country as quickly as possible.

In January this year the National Cancer Screening Service Board was established. This amalgamated BreastCheck and the Irish Cervical Screening Programme to deliver programmes nationally. BreastCheck will commence its roll-out this month. We have also allocated resources this year to meet the additional costs of that national roll-out, bringing its budget up to more than €20 million. A total of 111 posts have been approved and recruitment is under way. We have allocated capital funding of almost €27 million which has been allocated for two clinical units, seven additional mobile units and the provision of state-of-the-art digital equipment. Construction is under way on both these sites. Both are static sites, one in Galway, one in Cork.

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