Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said Ireland is on target to reduce the number of cases of cervical cancer to 4 per 100,000 women by 2040.
There are currently around 11 cases per 100,000 women in Ireland.
That means around 300 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer here every year, leading to around 90 deaths.
The World Health Organization is leading a global initiative to eliminate cervical cancer, which it defines as reducing annual cases to that figure of 4 per 100,000 women per year.
The Department of Health has said that "modelling of Irish data, including human papillomavirus vaccination rates, screening coverage and population data has identified that Ireland can reach this goal by 2040, i.e. within 17 years".
The WHO has set three targets to be achieved by 2030;
Vaccination: 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15;
Screening: 70% of women screened using a high-performance test by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45;
Treatment: 90% of women with pre-cancer treated and 90% of women with invasive cancer managed.
Speaking in Dublin today, Minister Donnelly said they were "already ahead" in two of these targets, "and we have one more to go".
According to the Department of Health the strategy will look at "increasing HPV vaccination rates for girls by age 15 from 80% to WHO target of 90% by 2030, continuing to exceed WHO targets by maintaining cervical screening coverage at or above 73%, and continuing to exceed WHO targets by maintaining the number of women receiving treatment within the first year of diagnosis at or above 97%".
"Thanks to our extraordinary healthcare professionals, thanks to some amazing healthcare advocates over many years... we are seeing very high uptake of the HPV for both boys and girls."
The Minister described the HPV vaccine as "incredible effective" and urged parents to "make sure that your son or daughter gets the HPV vaccine when they are in school", and highlighted the "Laura Brennan HPV vaccine catch up programme" for women up to the age of 25 and men up to the age of 22 who have not already received a vaccine.
Mr Donnelly also said "screening services are doing really well" and confirmed that the CervicalCheck sample processing lab in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin, which had to pause processing earlier this year, has now reopened.
He paid tribute to patient advocates and cervical cancer campaigners, including the late Laura Brennan who campaigned to encourage uptake of the HPV vaccine, and the Vicky Phelan who, whose death occurred one year ago this week.
As well as pushing for changes to the cervical screening service in Ireland, Vicky Phelan remained vocal about the importance of screening.
This week "Read my lips", a campaign she was working on with the Irish Examiner before her death, to encourage women to book their cervical screening test, was launched in her honour.
Read more: Woman who took smear misreporting case dies, court told
Today campaigners who worked alongside Laura Brennan and Vicky Phelan were briefed by the Minister on his new plan to "eradicate" cervical cancer within 17 years.
"It's a very powerful message, but it's also a testament to the amount of work that has been done over the last number of years," Stephen Teap, Co-founder of the 221+ CervicalCheck Patient Support Group said.
"Rebuilding trust is what everyone has been working towards with the screening programme over the last number of years and everyone has done a lot of work to try and regain people's trust," Mr Teap said.
"For those of us who have seen the drastic outcomes of cervical cancer its also an emotional day and we have to remember all of those we have lost to this disease," said Mr Teap, whose wife Irene died in 2017, "but at least we get to see in our lifetime that this can end".
However, campaigners say there is no room for complacency.
In 2016 uptake fell to 50% after what the Minister for Health described as the spread of "misinformation" about the vaccine, which was countered by awareness programmes, including one featuring the late Laura Brennan which saw improved uptake rates.
However, school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic also saw numbers drop.
"Thankfully they had a pick-up programme that was spear-headed by Laura Brennan's family to catch up on people who missed the vaccination," Mr Teap said.
"You don't know what's around the corner, but the will is there," he added.
The CEO of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power also welcomed today's announcement.
"The Irish Cancer Society is really excited that the elimination of cervical cancer is within our grasp, but in order to make that happen we can't have any slippage in HPV vaccination rates or cervical screenings," Ms Power said.
"We are urging Government to back up this target with real investment and a real priority for the school's vaccination programme, extending the catch-up programme for young people who missed out on the vaccination at school and resourcing cervical check to ensure that all women take up free cervical screening.
"Together we can eliminate cervical cancer in Ireland and ensure that other women in time, never have to go through the heartbreak or the loss that Vicky Phelan or Laura Brennan and their families have experienced," Ms Power said.
