As the House is aware, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, announced the national extension of BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, on 27 March last. BreastCheck provides breast screening services for women in the 50 to 64 year age group in the Eastern Regional Health Authority, North-Eastern Health Board and Midland Health Board areas. This programme is proving extremely successful in identifying breast cancer among women in this age group and also provides for the necessary surgical care of women who require breast surgery. To the end of December last year, 110,636 eligible women had been called for screening and 83,000 had been screened, representing an uptake rate of 75%.