Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The national cancer screening service is planning to roll out the national cervical screening programme on a national basis around the middle of this year. Women aged 25 to 44 years will be screened every three years while women aged 45 to 60 will be screened every five years. The service will be available free of charge to eligible women everywhere in the country. Approximately 230,000 women will be screened annually, assuming an 80% take-up by eligible women.

All elements of the programme, call-recall, smear taking, laboratories, colposcopy and treatment services will be quality assured, organised and managed to deliver a single integrated national service. The service is in the process of procuring quality assured internationally accredited laboratory capacity. The laboratories will be required to meet turnaround times of ten working days. This process is due to be completed by the end of March. The programme will be based on a turnaround time of four weeks for smear testing. The service is also carrying out a baseline quality audit of existing clinical colposcopy services in the State to establish their fitness for purpose in the context of a national cervical screening programme.

Additional revenue funding of €5 million was allocated to the service in 2007 for the roll-out of the programme and an additional €15 million has been allocated in 2008. Thirty posts have been approved to facilitate integration and roll-out of the programme.

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