A NATIONAL breast-cancer screening register, aimed at women in the "high-risk" 50-to-64 age group, will be in operation early next year, the Minister of Health, Mr Noonan, has said.
He also accepted the recommendation of the Working Party on Cervical Screening, whose report was published yesterday, that a national cervical screening programme should be set up, offered free to women between 25 and 60.
Breast cancer accounts for around 650 deaths of women in Ireland every year, making it the biggest fatal cancer among women. Mr Noonan said expert advice was that a breast-screening programme for the 240,000 women in the 50-64 age group could significantly reduce deaths, if 75 per cent of the women participated.
No national data base is available for the women in the target group. Mr Noonan said the intention had been to extend a pilot breast-cancer screening programme in Dublin and the north-east to the whole country.
However, it would have been necessary to pool data held by the VHI and the Department of Social Welfare, and this was problematic under data protection law.
The Minister said a "straightforward amendment" to that legislation would have to be introduced and he expected this early next year.
On cervical-cancer screening, Mr Noonan said he would now set up the expert advisory committee recommended by the working party so that the steps necessary for a national screening programme could be taken without delay.
The aim is that cervical smears should be available free of charge to all women between 25 and 60 as part of the programme.
Mr Noonan said he would take immediate steps to improve present testing facilities for women going for cervical screening. Extra consultants in histopathology - the study of body tissues - and other support staff would be brought in to clear the present backlog in processing tests.