Irish women will have to wait until 2008 for all to be treated on an equal basis when it comes to screening for breast cancer, Fine Gael's health spokesman, Dr Liam Twomey, has claimed.
He said the Government had "misled the people in the south and west of the country in relation to the timeframe and roll-out of BreastCheck", the free cancer- screening programme operating only in the Leinster region.
There are 1,700 cases diagnosed each year, and 640 women die from the disease.
By 2008 Northern Ireland women would mark 15 years of the programme and a 20 per cent reduction in deaths from the disease, while in the Republic, because of delays, "hundreds of women will have lost their lives and hundreds more will have endured devastating and radical surgery in order to control advanced breast carcinoma".
Speaking during a private members' debate, Dr Twomey said that all cancers had one thing in common: "Time is of the essence, and early detection through screening is critically important."
Minister of State for Health Tim O'Malley said he was "confident that during 2007 screening will commence in the western and southern counties".
Rolling out the programme required detailed planning for the development of essential infrastructure to provide for two clinical units, one in Cork and one in Galway, and the design and construction of such projects took about 2½ years.
Jan O'Sullivan (Lab, Limerick East) said: "It is not good enough that women, particularly those who come from families who have a high incidence of cancer and who have an internal fear that they might have the disease, cannot access this service."
The debate continues tonight.
