Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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One of the five pillars of Sláintecare relates to the question of removing cost as a barrier to access, and we have been talking about that in respect of a few different matters this morning. At the root of that is the fact there is no legal entitlement to healthcare, unlike an entitlement to, say, social protection. It was identified that we are unusual in this country in not having a legal entitlement to healthcare. There is the woolly concept of eligibility, whereby someone is eligible for a service if their income is low enough and if the service exists, but very often it does not or there are long waiting lists. Has any work been done to legislate for a legal entitlement to healthcare?