Health Screening Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Cathy Bennett (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

Over 3,500 new breast cancer cases arise in the State every year. It is absolutely shocking to say that 20% of the scheduled examinations did not take place last year. This should be seen as a red flag for Government and a huge concern for us all. The Minister needs to understand why this is happening and seek to address it immediately, whether through advertisements, education, more flexibility in the service in terms of missed appointments, and any other mechanism necessary. However, last year is not the full story of the missed targets. The missed targets over the past three years amount to 122,334. These can be taken in tandem with figures released to Sinn Féin earlier this year that show 45% of breast cancer surgeries are not happening within the recommended timeframe. With a growing and ageing population which will see the number of women eligible increase from 500,000 in 2019 to 700,000 by the end of the decade, the picture painted is one that should be deeply concerning for the future. It is not sufficient to simply increase targets and expect everything else to flow. We have seen the outworkings of that in terms of HRT, blister packs and so on. What I want to hear from the Minister of State is her comprehensive plan to set this right now - not just targets, but the substance.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23