Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is no problem. The Deputy has contacted my office about this already and the intention is not to change the status quo. Sales assistants will still be allowed to help people pick frames, handle cash and so on. The professional function of dispensing will be done by an optometrist or a qualified dispensing optician alone. Between now and Report Stage, I must be satisfied that we have not created any legal issue that would prevent what is already normal practice continuing.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, indicated on Second Stage, this is mainly a technical Bill. The primary purpose of Part 3 and section 42, in particular, is to correct a lacuna in the provisions of the Health Act 1970 relating to residential support services, maintenance and accommodation contributions inserted under the Health (Amendment) Act 2013. Section 42 amends section 67(a) of the Health Act 1970 to define key terms for the purposes of section 67(a) to (d) of that Act. "Accommodation" is defined as accommodation provided by or on behalf of the HSE or arranged in order to facilitate the provision of residential support services for a person whose ongoing costs of maintenance are met by or on behalf of the HSE. The related concept of residential support services is defined as services, other than outpatient, acute inpatient or long-term residential care services provided by or on behalf of the HSE for a person residing in or ancillary to accommodation which is a hospital, a convalescent home, a nursing home or residential accommodation for persons with physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual disabilities. Definitions are provided for the related concepts of excluded costs and costs of maintenance and, taking both definitions together, "costs of maintenance" will mean a person's ongoing essential daily living costs met by the HSE. These include food or other essential household provisions and-or electricity, gas, heating, refuse collection, water supply or other essential utilities but do not include the costs of care, accommodation or non-maintenance costs associated with providing health or personal social care services. Essentially, these are charges for food, gas, electricity and utilities.
On consultation, I am told that Part 3 of the Bill is on foot of ongoing consultation by the Department and the HSE in the past year on the implementation of section 19 of the Health (Amendment) Act 2013. Part 3 addresses an issue identified by the HSE expert group during the implementation planning phase and will ensure the statutory contributions regime will cover ongoing essential daily living costs such as food and utility bills where these are met by or on behalf of the HSE, irrespective of whether the service user is accommodated by or on behalf of the HSE. There will be consultation with the other key stakeholders before detailed regulations and implementation guidelines are finalised. In the vast majority of cases people are already contributing to a kitty to meet the cost of utilities, food and refuse collection and this ensures it will be on a sound legal footing.