Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I notice when one looks for statistics on various screening programmes that the last statistics for BreastCheck were from 2015, when 199,000 or so women were invited for screening. Of those, I think 146,000 attended, which was an uptake rate of almost 75%. It was the highest number ever screened by BreastCheck in a single year. Why do we not have the relevant statistics for BreastCheck, for example, for 2016 and 2017? Similarly, on the bowel-screening programme, the last figures I was able to look at were for 2012 to 2015. When will we get a more up to date report on that? For example, the uptake rate for bowel screening was just 40%, which seems very low. As the Minister rightly says, the screening programme has had a tremendously positive impact on our health, although we obviously still need to spend significant funding on prevention, especially with regard to obesity. Why do we not have more up to date reports? Will we get more feedback on the total screening programme for the next while?

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