Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for her indulgence.

I raise the issue of screening for women under 50 years of age. While I accept research tells us the disease affects older people, I have serious concerns about women under 50 years of age. This morning Dr. Juliet McAleese and Professor Arnold Hill debated the issue succinctly on "Today with Pat Kenny". I raised it yesterday on the Adjournment and was told that the debate was ongoing. I do not accept that there is not a major need for cancer screening for those under 50 years of age. It is an issue which has affected me in my personal life. A number of my friends and acquaintances, members of my family and constituents in their 40s have been diagnosed with cancer. It is an outrage that one must show symptoms or be in an at-risk category before one can be screened. It is not right that one cannot have a mammogram without being referred by a doctor.

It took ten years to roll out BreastCheck, a fantastic service. The service was only made available in Waterford last year. Why can we not extend it to women in their 40s? In providing a walk-in BreastCheck service for one hour in a particular area, women could make an appointment and undergo a routine check. If one is worried about breast cancer, one should be able to be screened without having to go through the rigmarole of having to pay a general practitioner to get a letter of referral. Screening is becoming a money-making racket. If we can do anything, we should extend breast cancer screening to women under 50 years of age.

The statistics are frightening. In 2007, 455 of the 600 women under 50 years of age diagnosed with breast cancer were in their 40s. I have experience of this in my close circle. I worked in a doctor's surgery and the number of women in their 40s who presented with breast cancer was staggering. I looked at a website and the information available for young women with breast cancer was trite. Women are in the prime of their lives in their 40s. They are rearing their children and looking after their aged parents. They are very important, socially and economically, to society. As we have said time and again, early detection is the only way we will be able to increase survival rates for women with breast cancer.