Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is not to say public representatives should not have every opportunity to advocate on behalf of their constituents. I support that as a public representative myself. Deputy Robert Dowds asked about the costs associated with an illness or condition, which is exactly what the discretionary regime is there to deal with where a person is over the limits. Costs associated with the illness or condition the person has are dealt with under the guidelines the HSE has published on its website. Mr. Hennessy or Ms McGuinness can elaborate how this works for the Deputy if necessary and set out how the HSE takes into account expenditure a person has in respect of an illness or condition.

Deputy Seamus Healy expressed frustration at dealing with these issues. I take him at his word even if he does not take me at mine. He is a very assiduous public representative as others are in the room and I am sure they find it frustrating at times. Deputy Healy referred to a number of issues including delays in the registering of information. I must ask Mr. Hennessy to deal with those operational issues of PCRS and the system itself. There is no proposal or intention to reverse the decision to centralise the system. The point has been made before that we had a starkly differential level of coverage in regard to medical cards nationally. There were considerable variations which seemed to arise from the way the scheme was administered in the past. There are equity issues involved and there ought to be a system which works in a consistent way across the country. That said, we need better linkages with local input and local knowledge. It is something Mr. Hennessy might comment on. We need more local input and the system must improve and be improved to take into account local input and local knowledge. It is extremely important and I urge the HSE to ensure we improve the systems to take the issue into account.