Women in the south can be waiting up to two years for a mammogram, the Health Service Executive confirmed yesterday.
It claimed, however, that this waiting time was for routine breast cancer screening but if a woman had a lump on her breast she would be seen quickly.
The HSE's statement came within hours of Cork Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe highlighting the case of a woman from Clonakilty who, he said, when she found a lump on her breast, was told she would have to wait 18 months to be examined by a consultant after she was referred by her GP.
He said the woman's GP and others insisted she be seen. When she was, it was discovered she required immediate surgery.
BreastCheck has not yet been extended to the south and its sole permanent consultant oncologist, Dr Séamus O'Reilly, said in a letter to Minister for Health Mary Harney that repeated delays in rolling it out were "costing lives".
The HSE said a patient with a clinical suspicion of malignancy would normally be seen on the same working day, or within five working days, but "an asymptomatic patient with no clinical indications of breast malignancy" would be given the next routine appointment, now at 24 months.