Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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76. To ask the Minister for Health the current status of the roll-out of BreastCheck to 65 to 69 year old women; the number of women screened in 2015; the number of women who will be able to avail of this service in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7944/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The implementation of the age extension of BreastCheck to 65-69 year olds commenced in Quarter 4 of 2015. BreastCheck invited 1,267 women in this age category for screening in 2015 and 852 of these were screened before the end of the year. In 2016, BreastCheck will invite over 11,000 women aged 65-69 for screening, and every effort will be made to encourage a high uptake rate.

The age extension is being implemented on an incremental basis, in line with the capacity of the system to manage the additional screening and follow up workload. The additional eligible population is approximately 100,000 and, when fully implemented, 540,000 women will be included in the BreastCheck Programme.

Women of any age who have concerns about breast cancer should seek the advice of their GP who will, if appropriate, refer them to the symptomatic breast services in one of the eight designated cancer centres.