October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The targets for mammograms in 2023 and 2024 were missed by nearly 80,000. On KCLR recently, I listened to so many women across Carlow and Kilkenny telling their stories. One woman told of her experience after being referred for a scan by her GP because of a lump on her breast. She said months went by without a single word from the hospital. She contacted the hospital only to be told that she was marked as an urgent case but that the wait for her scan could be up to ten months. The results of the scan took a further 16 weeks. That is more than a year for a potential cancer to be spreading. The emotional stress and toll this is taking on thousands of women is overwhelming. This is happening in circumstances where the time from referral to result for someone who has the money to go private is less than a month. This is very wrong. Budget 2026 leaves cancer patients and clinicians with so many unanswered questions, which is deeply worrying. Is the Tánaiste satisfied that public patients have to wait more than a year for their results when private patients wait less than a month?

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important issue during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Minister for Health engaged with the national cancer screening service recently and has engaged with cancer advocacy groups too. I am not satisfied if people are experiencing those waiting times. The Deputy is quite right. As well as the clinical importance of quick diagnosis, there is also – as she very eloquently put it – the hugely stressful and worrying time that it is for women and for their families. I will ask the Minister to come back to the Deputy on the actions she and the HSE believe we can take since there is clarity regarding funding for the health service in budget 2026. We will try to make progress on the matter.