Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views that Ireland will be able to achieve the targets set in a draft report by the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament to achieve 100% screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer by 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10424/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring to a recent Draft Report by the European Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Public Safety which is a response to the European Partnership for Action Against Cancer. Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the European Union and the Partnership was established to support Member States by providing a framework for identifying and sharing information, capacity and expertise in cancer control, and by engaging relevant stakeholders across the EU in a collective effort.

The Commission's Communication on the Partnership set out a number of objectives for reducing the burden of cancer. In relation to early detection an Objective for Action is to achieve 100% population coverage of screening for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer as recommended in Council Recommendation 2003/878/EC. This Recommendation proposes that Member States offer screening for these cancers for specified age groups. A 2008 Report by the Commission found that overall only half the population who should be covered by screening according to the Recommendation actually were.

In Ireland, the National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) has responsibility for the delivery of population based cancer screening programmes. Considerable progress has been made in recent years in expanding our cancer screening programmes and Government has made available more than €64 million this year for breast and cervical screening and for preparatory work for the national colorectal cancer screening programme.

CervicalCheck, the national cervical screening programme, was established nationwide in 2008. The programme provides free smear tests every three years to women aged 25 to 44 years of age and every five years for women aged 45 to 60. This is in accordance with the Recommendation (screening starting not before the age of 20 and not later than the age of 30). In 2009, around 280,000 women were screened.

BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, provides free mammograms every two years for women aged 50 to 64. During 2009 BreastCheck reached all counties and over 122,000 women were screened. I expect this number to increase during 2010. The Council Recommendation is that mammography screening should be provided to women aged 50 to 69 years. It remains my intention to extend BreastCheck to women in the 65-69 age group as resources and capacity allow.

In January I announced the beginning of important work on a national colorectal cancer screening programme. Screening will commence in 2012 for all men and women aged between 60 and 69. This programme will be extended to all those aged 55 to 74 years of age as logistics and resources allow. Other countries including England, Sweden and Finland have aimed their programmes at this 60 to 69 year age group also. While the Council recommends that the colorectal screening test should be available for men and women aged 50 to 74, the Expert Advisory Group convened by HIQA agreed that the appropriate age range for a programme based on faecal testing is 55 to 74 years.

A key objective of our National Cancer Control Strategy is that Ireland will have a system of cancer control that reduces our cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality rates relative to other European countries. Prevention and early detection are vital components of this strategy. Screening has been a priority for the Government and approximately 400,000 women received free screening in the BreastCheck and CervicalCheck programmes in 2009. The commencement of colorectal screening for the 60 to 69 age group in 2012 will be a further important milestone in the implementation of the Strategy. As I have said, it is my intention to extend the age cohorts covered by breast and colorectal screening programmes in due course and to continue to build on the considerable progress already made by Ireland in regard to the provision of cancer screening.