Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate him on his appointment. I am pleased he has come to the House to outline the reasons that the national breast screening programme is currently unavailable to women in the Mid-Western Health Board region and other areas. Following the publication of a report on the development of services for symptomatic breast disease, in March 2000, the Mid-Western Health Board established a symptomatic breast clinic in December 2000. At the same meeting the board requested BreastCheck and the Department of Health and Children to set up a breast screening service simultaneously with the symptomatic clinic. That has not happened. I ask why the board is still awaiting a decision from the Department regarding the roll-out of the national screening programme and when it will happen.

I note that for administrative purposes the chosen centres are in Cork and Galway and I ask why Limerick has been overlooked. Failure to roll out the national scheme means that a large area of the mid-west, including my own area of Tipperary North, has no service. The mammography machine which was purchased some 12 years ago by the Irish Countrywomen's Association and the Friends of Nenagh Hospital, at no expense to the Government, is now defunct. It has outlived its usefulness and is no longer safe to use.

The women of that area have no service. That is putting unbearable pressure on people who must travel to out centres like Cork, Limerick or Dublin. The Minister of State might not realise it but parts of north Tipperary are 60 miles from Limerick. Further pressure is put on them because they must seek child care facilities, take time off work and travel but, above all, they have to queue and wait a long time, often six months or more, before they can have a mammograph. This is unacceptable.