Mr. Liam Woods:

I have a couple of observations to make that might be anecdotal, but they would offer an example of the cases we are discussing. Some of them are technical. If someone is admitted through an accident and emergency department and pays a charge, but it subsequently turns out to be a notifiable infectious disease, the charge may have been invalidly raised or it could turn out to be the case subsequently that the person has a medical card. There is also discretion under legislation for the HSE to write off a debt in cases of extreme hardship and there are such examples. In the case of road traffic accidents, if people do not pursue a case, the HSE does not seek the cost, but it may have been recorded. There are technical reasons, including hardship and reaching a figure of 12 months, we make provision against a debt. However, we continue to seek to collect it. A write-off only occurs when the view is taken that it would not be possible to collect it.