Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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531. To ask the Minister for Health the reason a free breast check and smear test service is not available to women under 50 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33046/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The HSE's National Screening Service provides evidence based screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. These services operate in line with screening protocols internationally which are underpinned by National Guidelines for Quality Assurance and further supported by European policy guidelines.

CervicalCheck provides free smear tests to women between the ages of 25 and 60. Since its introduction, CervicalCheck has detected 1,082 invasive cervical cancers, 41,417 high-grade abnormalities and 29,508 low-grade abnormalities.

To date, BreastCheck has detected over 8,500 cancers. Until recently, BreastCheck offered free mammograms every two years to all women aged 50-64 years. The roll out of BreastCheck to women aged 65-69 began in late 2015.

International evidence does not support the introduction of population based breast screening below the age of 50. BreastCheck emphasise that anyone under the age of 50 who has any concerns about their breast health should contact their GP immediately, who can refer them to a symptomatic breast disease clinic.