Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 312: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the extent to which she has studied the number of incidents of the various forms of cancer on a county basis throughout the country; if she has reached any conclusions with particular reference to the cause or causes in respect of those counties or regions with the highest incidents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35680/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The National Cancer Registry has routinely collected data on county of residence for all incidences of cancer since 1994. These data have been published in a number of reports, including Cancer in Ireland 1994-2000 and two all-Ireland cancer reports, All-Ireland Cancer Statistics for 1994-96 and 1998-2000. Up-to-date tables describing cancer incidence by site, sex and county of residence are also available to the public on the registry website www.ncri.ie. In addition to this routine analysis, the registry has carried out a number of analyses of cancer incidence for single counties in response to specific local issues.

The most recent detailed analysis of the relationship between cancer incidence and county of residence was carried out for the second All-Ireland cancer report for the period 1998-2000, which was published in 2004. While this report showed some relationship between region of residence and cancer incidence, there were few instances where this relationship could be shown at county level. In general, the number of cancer cases diagnosed at county level were too few, and the variation in incidence between counties too small for any meaningful conclusions to be drawn. The only clear exception to this was for lung cancer, where incidences and mortality was significantly higher in Dublin than elsewhere. This variation in lung cancer incidence between urban and rural setting was also found in Belfast and Derry and is consistent with the pattern of incidence of lung cancer in other countries.