Mary Henry (Independent)

I also welcome the Minister to the House. I am very glad he has been able to visit the Central Mental Hospital. I asked the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, to go there and the fact that the Minister also went is marvellous. I am quite sure he will have been as horrified as I was by the conditions there.

To return to the subject in hand, I speak as a satisfied customer of BreastCheck. I was called back at the right time and got reports very quickly. A friend of mine who was not so fortunate, in that her mammograms were not clear, was also very well treated when it was detected that she had early breast cancer and she has made a very successful recovery from operative treatment. However, it is the Minister for Finance who should be here tonight to hear what we are saying. I am quite sure that if the Minister for Health and Children had the money he would roll out the programme all over the country.

I know there have been staffing problems, particularly with radiographers, but they seem to have been solved. I particularly salute those radiographers who decided to come back for retraining so that the scheme could be expanded to other places.