Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 2

Written Answers. - Cancer Treatment Services.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Ceist:

320 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Health and Children the numbers of women who were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 on a county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7945/02]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin):

The National Cancer Registry Board is the statutory body responsible for collecting and analysing information relating to the prevalence of cancer in Ireland. I have been informed by the National Cancer Registry that the most recent verified data for national breast cancer incidence relates to 1998. Following is a table; Appendix 1, showing the number of breast cancer cases from 1994 to 1998 on a county basis for the Deputy's information.

Appendix 1: Number of breast cancer cases by county, 1994 to 1998

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Clare	35	35	43	29	37
Cork	205	189	194	193	209
Cavan	25	17	20	27	16
Carlow	21	20	17	13	24
Donegal	55	48	50	50	65
Dublin	475	442	504	536	549
Galway	69	87	78	83	78
Kildare	46	51	50	49	59
Kilkenny	20	32	32	29	27
Kerry	51	60	61	47	63
Longford	12	16	13	15	17
Louth	26	35	45	45	44
Limerick	62	71	68	75	70
Leitrim	14	12	17	9	11
Laois	26	26	20	15	27
Meath	33	32	33	51	45
Monaghan	12	16	23	17	19
Mayo	62	49	38	50	42
Offaly	19	23	24	19	38
Roscommon	23	19	28	27	22
Sligo	34	28	26	35	30
Tipperary	54	73	53	40	53
Waterford	32	44	44	57	48
Westmeath	28	26	26	36	35
Wicklow	43	44	38	44	51
Wexford	19	34	49	46	52
	1,501	1,529	1,594	1,637	1,731

As the Deputy is aware, BreastCheck, the national breast screening programme, com menced in March 2000, with phase one of the programme covering the Eastern Regional Health Authority, Midland Health Board and North Eastern Health Board. Screening is being offered free of charge to all women in those areas in the target age group 50 to 64 years of age. It is expected that phase one of the programme will be completed by December 2002. To date, more than 50,000 women have been called for screening and more than 34,000 women have been screened. This represents an uptake of over 70%. BreastCheck is currently in discussion with health boards concerning expansion of the programme nationwide. My Department will continue to support BreastCheck in moving to nationwide coverage as soon as possible.

The report of the sub-group of the national cancer forum Development of Services for Symptomatic Breast Disease was published in March 2000 and contains recommendations for the establishment of a network of specialist breast units throughout the country and the appropriate infrastructure, personnel and equipment which is needed for such specialist units. During the past year, there have been extensive consultations between my Department and the health boards in relation to the development of symptomatic breast disease services in their functional areas in the context of the report.