Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

In my time, I have heard a great deal of rubbish from that gentleman — he is full of it.

I have observed BreastCheck and it is a professional, finely tuned, wonderful service. May I ask the Minister, without interruption, the reason women aged 65 years and over are deemed to be invisible and denied access to the service? I cannot understand the reason for this. Many women have told me they are prevented from accessing the service because they are aged over 65 years. Professor Keane, whom I met recently, seems to be a very good man and he informed me of an aspiration to make the BreastCheck service available to women aged over 65 years. I want this aspiration to become a reality.

If BreastCheck is to be a professional, universal programme, one cannot argue in favour of excluding women of a certain age from using it because the incidence of breast cancer in this group is lower than in other groups. The incidence of breast cancer in women aged over 65 years is high and belies the statistics we often see. Everybody seems to be afraid to point this out. We do not need to erect a cordon sanitaire around women of this age, although I wish women in this group were immune from bullies and other obstructions life places before them. I plead with the Minister to ensure BreastCheck is made available to women aged 65 years and over. Cervical cancer screening services will be of great benefit to women.

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