Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Women in Clare or anywhere else who are concerned should go to their general practitioners who will be able to refer them to one of the eight centres of excellence. The idea is that the centres deal with those suffering from symptomatic cancer. However, they also deal with families that are in the high-risk category. Earlier this week I was visited in my office by a group from another part of the country. One of the women present was diagnosed with breast cancer as part of a routine follow up which resulted from her mother being diagnosed with the disease. There must be a misunderstanding regarding the matter to which the Deputy refers. It would not be the intention to prevent members of families in which there is a history of cancer to attend specialist clinics. If there is a particular issue in the mid-west region, I would like to speak to Professor Keane about it.

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