Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I am proud to second the first Labour Party motion of this Seanad term. In bringing forward this debate on the health service we are, as my colleague has pointed out, attempting to raise the issue of accountability in relation to this important Government responsibility. In particular, I draw attention to the non-extension of the breast cancer screening programme to the remaining parts of the country.

The mid-western region is the one with which I am most familiar and I direct the Minister's attention to the fact that there is major concern about the lack of a breast screening service there. Recently, the mammograph machine at Nenagh General Hospital has been shut down, there are no plans by the health board to replace it and a perfectly good breast and smear clinic has come to an end, leaving the women of north Tipperary without a breast screening service. There is no better example of how not to do things. The Government announced a national screening programme and a timescale for it, then failed to meet its own deadlines and allowed local services people had confidence in to be run down without providing for replacements.

At a public meeting which I called because of the level of concern about this matter, a number of issues came up with regard to the lack of services for women. We have one of the highest rates of breast cancer in Europe, are now in the middle of breast cancer awareness month and we have a failure to roll out the screening service. It is – at the very least – ironic and insulting to switch on the radio every day and hear advertisements exhorting women to use a service which is not available. It is a disgrace and nothing short of a scandal. Speaking to women and their families who have been affected by breast cancer brings home the extent to which this Government is failing a section of women, at least in the community I represent. I do not speak lightly when I say it is a scandal.