Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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658. To ask the Minister for Health if he will examine a series of matters on BreastCheck (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24553/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, offers free screening mammograms every two years to women within the eligible population.

The screening process seeks to identify cancer at an early stage when it has a better outcome and may be treated less aggressively with less morbidity. The program has been running since 2000 and over that time has provided more than 1.7 million mammograms to women and detected over 11,500 breast cancers; more than half of which were diagnosed at an early stage.

Until recently, the eligible age range for screening was 50 to 64. The implementation of an age extension of BreastCheck to 65-69 year olds commenced in Quarter 4 of 2015. The age extension is being implemented on an incremental basis, and it is anticipated that the full age extension will be implemented by 2021.

BreastCheck is an important aspect of cancer control in Ireland and it is not envisaged that there will be any cut to the current funding levels of the programme.