Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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475. To ask the Minister for Health the annual cost of the BowelScreen programme; his plans to decrease or increase funding for the BowelScreen programme in 2018; the number of persons in County Mayo who have availed of the BowelScreen service to date; and the average wait time for results from the BowelScreen programme. [21983/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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BowelScreen, the National Bowel Screening Programme, is run by the HSE's National Screening Service. It offers free bowel screening to men and women aged 60-69. The BowelScreen Round One Programme Report (2012-2015) shows that 521 cancers were detected through bowel screening, 3 out of 4 of which were detected at an early stage of cancer development.

The current funding allocation for the BowelScreen programme is €8.7m. The funding requirements for BowelScreen in 2018 will be considered as part of the Estimates process.

A total of 9,811 people in County Mayo took part in the BowelScreen programme.

People who receive an invitation from BowelScreen, and who consent to take part in the programme, are normally issued a home FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) test. For those who completed and returned the test during Round One (2012-2015), the average wait time for results was ten calendar days.