Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we know, BreastCheck , which was introduced 18 years ago, has had a massive impact. It has saved many thousands of women's lives and it has been independently and internationally verified as one of the best screening programmes in the world. In the report for 2015–16, it is stated 198,000 women were offered screening and 146,000 took up the offer. This is an uptake of 74.7%, which is the highest uptake to date. In 2015–16, 986 cancers were detected, thereby giving a better outcome to those who used the service in that year.

BreastCheck costs €30 million per year to run. This is money incredibly well spent. It was described yesterday at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health as one of the best parts of our health service. At the hearing yesterday, however, doubt was cast on its future. The national clinical director of BreastCheck, Professor O'Doherty, said that since the CervicalCheck scandal broke in the media, BreastCheck has received 15 solicitors' letters. This is extraordinary for a service that, until a fortnight ago, used to receive one or two per year. Professor O'Doherty is genuinely worried that if these cases are successful, it could absorb all the money from the programme and may end up jeopardising it altogether. She mentioned legal costs of tens of millions of euro. She said the taxpayer will require the stopping of the screening programme, which would mean women would die unnecessarily from breast cancer. As I stated, in one year 986 cancers were detected.

Is the Tánaiste aware of Professor O'Doherty's comments yesterday? Has the Government a plan to deal with this challenge to BreastCheck? Can the Tánaiste state today that the Government is fully supportive of the BreastCheck programme and that it will give its full support to the management of the programme to ensure its continued success, particularly in the face of this challenge?

See this speech in context