James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate that when a person attends a health care giver or health service provider the provider will have a number as well as access to the register and can feed numbers into the register. If a person does not have an IHI it can be organised there and then to give him a number. It is not intended that people would have a card. Anyone can get his IHI from the HSE or its successor if he so wishes.

There is another issue around mailing material. We all know that people are mobile now. We could have situations whereby people have moved house. If we had a mailing campaign then we would be addressing letters that could be opened by others now at a given address and the intended person may have moved on.

In short, it is clear that each provider will have access to the register and will be able to organise an individual health indicator number. A classic case of where this could arise is in the case of tourists. We are very fortunate to have a thriving tourist industry in this country, but tourists sometimes get ill and need to be looked after. The provider will give them an IHI. It is not a massive job to organise that and it is provided for here.