A national colorectal cancer screening programme for people in Ireland aged 55 to 74 years has been recommended by two expert reports published last week. However, the Irish health minister, Mary Harney, has failed to commit additional funding for the project, instead asking experts to come up with “innovative ways” of introducing the programme “within existing resources.”

The primary screening test recommended by experts from the National Cancer Screening Service and the one found to be most cost effective by the Health Information and Quality Authority is the faecal immunochemical …