Harney says cervical screening is best choice

CERVICAL CANCER screening rather than a vaccination programme made the best "clinical choice" without additional resources, Minister for Health Mary Harney insisted as she defended the decision to delay the introduction of the vaccination programme for girls.

She told the Dáil she hoped but could not guarantee that the programme, due to be introduced in 2009, would instead begin in 2010. The Minister stressed that "the priority is to pick up today, through screening, those women who are prone to cervical cancer and then to provide quality assured treatment".

But Labour health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan questioned how the Minister decided her priorities "if this life-saving preventative measure, which would lead to greater health outcomes for women, is not a priority".

Ms O'Sullivan said there were other ways to cut costs including reducing the number of Ministers of State. Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said €10 million had been spent on press secretaries, officers and constituency staff and more than €1 million on bonuses for senior HSE staff. He asked if the Minister "makes savings in administration, bonuses for the bosses, bureaucracy and through redundancies or do you do so at the expense of the future prospects and lives of young women".

Arthur Morgan (Sinn Féin, Louth) said costs for the vaccination programme varied between €10 million and €14 million, yet "this Government gives tax breaks worth €10.6 million to the developers of private and for-profit hospitals".

They were speaking during an emergency Dáil debate on the decision, announced on Tuesday, not to introduce the vaccination programme for 12-year-old girls, due to start in September 2009.

Yesterday, Ms Harney insisted that the vaccination programme had not been "abandoned" and she denied she had used the US presidential election to announce the delay in the vaccination programme. "When parliamentary questions are asked I believe they should be answered truthfully and people should not be misled into having a false view that some time next year this vaccine would be introduced when I knew in my heart of hearts that I did not have money to do it."

Ms Harney said it was a "considerable challenge" to cut € 700 million from the 2009 budget. "There is no low-lying fruit in health, no easy pickings. Therefore, it was obvious that something that had not yet begun should not begin next year when we did not have the resources to do it."

Ms Harney said that while the vaccine programme had the potential to prevent 70 per cent of cervical cancers, screening prevented 80 per cent to 90 per cent of cancers. Those vaccinated would still have to be screened, she added. The roll out of cancer screening would continue and an extra €25 million would be provided for that.

Dr Reilly said figures showed that of 200 cases in 2004, up to 111 could be prevented and of the 93 deaths, 52 could be averted. He also said that "a hard deal done by the Government could result in no money being paid for the vaccine next year or the year after and that the suppliers might be prepared to wait until 2011 to receive their monies, given the economic climate".

Olwyn Enright (FG, Laois-Offaly) said she could not understand how the Minister came up with her priorities "and how they can be so changeable and interchangeable, depending on the situation".

Kathleen Lynch (Labour, Cork North Central) said the decision would create a two-tier system. "We will have a cohort of young women who will be vaccinated because their parents can afford it and another cohort of young women whose parents cannot afford it."