Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

At present, it is being rolled out in counties Cork, Galway and Roscommon. We have provided additional funding this year, as we did over the past number of years, so the national cancer screening service can meet its additional costs. The full complement of 111 staff for the roll-out has been approved and the Minister has made almost €30 million available this year for capital funding. We have provided for the construction of two new clinical units, seven mobile units and state-of-the-art digital equipment. Screening in individual counties is dictated by BreastCheck management operation considerations. We have gone from the position of seven years ago, when there was little or nothing. I was present at the launch of BreastCheck, when we had practically nothing. We are progressively rolling it out, resourcing it and putting the staff in place. The published national cancer control programme shows the absolute necessity of implementing the national control programme without delay. The HSE has designated the four managed cancer control networks and the eight cancer centres, and Professor Keane is in place.

Deputy Gilmore asked a fair question in respect of the 13 centres, the operations of which were stopped following the report published last year or the year before. The 13 centres dealt with less than 55 cases between them. I am neither a radiographer nor a radiologist and I do not know anything about mammography but every report, including references to other countries, states that centres which deal with small numbers of cases are not safe and not what we should be doing. It is not that we have any bright ideas; it is international best practice. That is why we brought Professor Keane here, as someone who has done this successfully in Canada. He is Irish but has worked for the Canadian system. He can do this over a two-year period and we have put significant resources into the area. I am not saying that if we had all the digital equipment, the Professor Keanes, the 70 consultants and everything else we need we would prevent somebody from misreading a mammogram or another person reading it in a different way. However, we are progressively putting in place the necessary resources and people for BreastCheck and the national screening programme, as we have done for at least seven or eight years.

The most important aspect of this matter is that seven or eight people have been badly let down by the service and it is our obligation to do everything we can for them.

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