Could BreastCheck age be lowered?

Cork County Council has written to the minister for health asking that Ireland’s free breast screening service commencement to be lowered from age 50 to 40.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Ann Marie Ahern’s motion at Monday’s full council meeting pointed out that BreastCheck, the HSE’s national breast cancer screening service, has missed its screening targets for two years in a row, according to new figures.

The figures, recently made available through a parliamentary question in Dail Eireann, show that of 195,000 people targeted for screening in 2024, only 137,134 checks were carried out. In 2023, the target was 185,000 but the service only managed 166,532 checks.

Currently, the free BreastCheck service is only available every two years to people aged between 50 and 69. Cllr Ahern’s motion argued that lowering the age to 40 would save lives and work to combat the target shortfall.

“In my eyes, when it comes to health care, prevention is certainly better than cure and we need to act rather than react,” said Cllr Ahern.

“It's imperative that we first look at lowering the age of 50 back, not to 45, but to 40, and actually implement and be leaders in instrumentally stopping breast cancer from spreading any further than it already is.

“It's something that I'm not going to let go and I'm going to keep bringing up as much as I can,” added the East Cork councillor.

Mr Ahern’s motion was supported across the chamber with Fianna Fáil’s Gearoid Murphy saying: “Cancer can strike at any age and we need to commit the resources necessary to support early detection.”

Social Democrat Ann Bambury added: “As a woman, women's health is of the utmost importance. We all want to be reassured that the BreastCheck is up to date with respect to diagnosis technology and screening standards.”

Another issue of concern amongst some councillors was the length of time between BreastCheck services being available in certain parts of the county.

Fine Gael Cllr Caroline Cronin said: “We don't see the BreastCheck bus that comes to Bantry half often enough. Every 18 months to two years is far too long. I'd love to see a breast check clinic in West Cork.”

Independent Ireland Cllr Danny Collins, added: “I had a similar motion last year regarding the breast check unit that comes to Bantry; it only comes once every 18 to 20 months. I called on the HSE to make it at least available to the Bantry area at least once a year. They did say that they would review it and I've heard nothing back since.”

Cork County Council will now write to the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD calling for a review of the HSE’s BreastCheck programme.