Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for attending this House and I was interested to hear his contribution on this motion. For seven years, I was a member of the Western Health Board, which campaigned to make BreastCheck available in the west of Ireland. Senator Cox, who chaired the board in its last year, promoted this campaign and organised a petition which received thousands of signatures. The Minister of State clearly stated that BreastCheck is available to approximately 160,000 women in the 50 to 64 age group in the east, north east, south east and midlands. He went on to say that it will be introduced to Galway and the west in 2007 but we expected that it would be available by now. I hope that the 2007 target is met because we have fought for the service for a long time. The HSE is continuing that fight and it is significant that tenders for construction are being invited.

I concur with the remarks made by other speakers on the success of screening programmes in Scandinavian countries and in our neighbour, Great Britain. When we held a debate on male cancer, it was noted that men do not visit doctors as often as they should but that is not true in the case of women. The problem in the west of Ireland is that the facilities are not available. Cancer is not a death sentence but people worry about family histories. The Minister of State offered hope in his remarks on cervical screening, BreastCheck and the Tánaiste's plan for a national cancer strategy.

Senator O'Toole asked whether we are prepared for an outbreak of avian flu. There was a significant mobilisation of forces when foot and mouth disease threatened this country and it is welcome that the person responsible for that, Professor Michael Monaghan, is chairman of the avian influenza advisory group. However, the threat of cancer hangs over the many people who do not have opportunities to avail of screening. Such opportunities must be provided and the sooner that is done through the national cancer strategy, the better.