Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 274: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the counties in which the BreastCheck service is available; and the estimated percentage of women to which the service is now available. [14062/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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BreastCheck, the National Breast Screening Programme, is currently available in fourteen counties in the Eastern, North Eastern, Midland and parts of the South Eastern regions. The counties covered are Cavan, Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Longford, Laois, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Wicklow, Westmeath and Wexford. Screening is offered free of charge to all women in the 50-64 age group in these counties, which is approximately 56% of the national target population.

I am committed to ensuring that the BreastCheck service is rolled out to the remaining regions in the country as quickly as possible. I have allocated additional revenue funding of €8 million for this year to meet the additional costs involved and I have approved an additional 69 posts for the roll-out. BreastCheck appointed the Clinical Directors for the South and West last November and has recently appointed three Consultant Radiologists, two Consultant Surgeons and two Consultant Histopathologists, all with a special interest in breast disease. The recruitment of Radiographers and other staff is underway.

I have also made available an additional €26.7m capital funding for the construction of two new clinical units and the provision of five additional mobile units and state of the art digital equipment. The static units at the South Infirmary/Victoria Hospital in Cork and University College Hospital Galway are on schedule for hand-over in September followed by a three week commissioning period. They will be operational in October.

In advance of the commissioning of the static unit in the South, BreastCheck is making every effort to achieve earlier roll-out through the use of a mobile unit. Early deployment of a mobile unit in advance of the completion of the regional screening unit gives rise to particular and unique operational and recruitment challenges for BreastCheck in the South. At present, these challenges have not been overcome and as a result it is not possible to indicate at this stage when an early mobile unit will be deployed. As regards the West, BreastCheck expects the roll-out to commence in April.