A national breast screening programme will begin in September, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, told the Dail. He assured TDs there was "no ambiguity" about the establishment of such a service.

Mr Cowen told Ms Mary Hanafin (FF, Dun Laoghaire) that he was "absolutely committed" to providing such a service. He warned, however, that the service would require careful planning and organisation.

Ms Hanafin expressed concern at the high rate of breast cancer in Ireland and fatalities arising from the disease, particularly compared with the US, where there were dedicated "centres of excellence" to deal with that form of cancer.

Mr Cowen referred to the proposals of his predecessor in office, Mr Michael Noonan (FG, Limerick East), who had aimed to introduce the screening service on a phased basis.

The first phase will cover 120,000 women, half of the national target population in the Eastern, North Eastern and Midland Health Board areas.

Mr Cowen said part of the difficulty in establishing the programme was the need to establish a "named population register" which complied with data protection requirements. The Department was now able to establish a "population register" for the screening service.

He said there would be two central units, at the Mater and St Vincent's hospitals in Dublin, where the screening, assessment and treatment "will be carried out using a multi-disciplinary team approach involving the relevant clinical disciplines, including the screening radiologist".

There would also be two mobile units to bring the screening service to remote areas within the three health board areas.

Substantial funding "has been made available in 1998 to meet the start-up costs for the programme," Mr Cowen said. "It is important to introduce the programme on a phased basis so as to ensure high quality and to promote high uptake of the service."