There were angry scenes at a news conference called by Minister of State John Perry in Sligo this afternoon.

During the General Election campaign, Mr Perry promised that all breast cancer services would be restored to Sligo General Hospital within 100 days of Fine Gael getting into office.

Since the removal of services, patients have to travel to Galway for treatment.

This afternoon, Minister Perry announced that mammography services would be restored to Sligo for women who require follow-up services and it is expected that this outreach service will be in place by the last quarter of the year.

He said Sligo's cancer services will be further strengthened by the recruitment of a second permanent medical oncologist at the hospital. This appointment had been announced previously.

In addition, Mr Perry said that Sligo will be one of the colonoscopy centres for the colorectal cancer screening programme to be launched next year.

Announcement 'a whitewash'

However campaigners for the restoration of full breast cancer services described Minister Perry's announcement as a whitewash, with some calling for his resignation. They said they had voted for Mr Perry on the basis of his promise to restore cancer services and he had reneged on that.

Cancer campaigner Deirdre O'Sullivan said 'we destroyed Fianna Fáil for you John Perry'.

She said people she had asked to vote for Fine Gael had taken his promises in good faith, but she said she was 'so so mad today'.

Minister Perry said that in hindsight a pledge to restore all services within 100 days was going to prove incredibly difficult to attain, but he said that time had been far from idly spent.

He said he had secured a report from hospital management on what is needed to restore services and there were two options which he would fight for.

At the moment, he said, the only missing link in terms of previous services was surgery and he said Health Minister James Reilly assured him that the door remains very much open on this issue.