An Oireachtas committee has urged the Department of Health to put in place arrangements as soon as possible to ensure girls up to the age of 12 get a new vaccine which protects against most cases of cervical cancer.
The joint Oireachtas committee on Health and Children also recommended yesterday that a cervical cancer screening programme be rolled out across the State as a matter of urgency.
Screening has been provided on a pilot basis in the Midwest since 2000 but has not been extended nationwide.
The committee's recommendations followed a presentation from Dr Henrietta Campbell, chief executive of the All-Ireland Cancer Foundation, who said a lot of women who died of cervical cancer over the last number of years were "let down" as a result of the absence of a national cervical cancer screening programme.
Prof Walter Prendiville, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Coombe Women's Hospital in Dublin, also told the committee that cases of cervical cancer are picked up later in the Republic due to the absence of a cervical cancer screening programme.
When a national screening programme was introduced in the UK in 1989 cervical cancer rates fell substantially. He said cervical cancer screening allows pre-cancerous cells to be picked up 10 years before they are cancerous. Patients can then be given highly effective treatment.
He also said a good cancer screening programme would prevent 70 per cent of cervical cancers and the new cervical cancer vaccine would also prevent 70 per cent of cases. The two together could prevent 95 per cent of cases, he added.
Therefore, he said the arrival of the vaccine, which is most effective when given to females before they become sexually active, should not stop the State urgently rolling out a national cervical cancer screening programme.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has said her goal is to have a national cervical screening programme in place by 2008 and the State's National Immunisation Advisory Committee is currently discussing the merits of introducing a cervical cancer vaccination programme.
Senator Mary Henry said it surprised her women had not sued the Government for failing to provide a service which would have detected their cancer early.
Up to 200 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the Republic every year.