The BreastCheck screening programme is being extended to three more counties, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has announced.
The service, aimed at women aged between 50 and 64, has up to this only been available in the Eastern Regional Health Authority, North Eastern Health Board and Midland Health Board areas. It will now be extended to Carlow, Wexford and Kilkenny.
Mr Martin said he was committed to extending the programme to the west and south also and would meet the BreastCheck team shortly to discuss this.
The Labour Party's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said, however, that Mr Martin had made a clear commitment to have a nationwide breast-screening programme in place by the end of 2002. "As of now, this service is not available to women in Connacht and Munster, which is unforgivable and demands an explanation from the Department of Health," she said.
"When the Minister established the programme three years ago, he obviously did not put the necessary resources and staff in place to deliver the service."
Mr Martin, who was speaking at the launch of the Irish Cancer Society's 16th annual Daffodil Day, claimed "very good progress" had been made to date. He had expected a report last month from an expert group examining provision of radiotherapy services in the State which he now expected in about four weeks.
As reported in The Irish Times on Saturday, it will recommend radiotherapy services be provided in Dublin, Cork and Galway only.
"The indications are a huge scale of investment is required . . . anything up to the order of €150 million, if I am to believe what I am being told, but on the specifics, I think we'll await the publication of the report," he said.
"But I do see the radiotherapy issue as a critical one because it is the one area where there is still underprovision in terms of reaching the targets out there, in terms of those who should be getting accessible and quick radiotherapy facilities."
Mr Martin is likely to get a hostile reception when he visits Waterford Regional Hospital on Friday, as a campaign to site radiotherapy services there now appears doomed.
Meanwhile, the Irish Cancer Society hopes to raise up to €3 million on Daffodil Day this year, which will be on March 21st. The money raised will pay for specialist home-care day and night nursing for those terminally ill, as well as cancer nurse education and a cancer helpline.
Approximately 21,000 new cases of cancer are recorded annually and one in three people will develop the disease at some stage.