Mr. Jim Breslin:

The Ombudsman has pointed to inconsistencies, given that certain categories of disease or disability were considered to fall within the scheme. Quoting the Equal Status Act, she considered that it had fallen foul of that Act. Therefore, in its actual rule set there were inconsistencies. There were also inconsistencies in its application, but that is almost inevitable when one leaves the decision-making process to a decentralised old health board system and even within the HSE, where at a local level decisions are made on a case by case basis and there is no national policy in terms of process and procedure. In the introduction of any new scheme we would seek to put in place, both at a clinical and a means-testing level, one national process that would apply consistently to all people in order that we could guarantee equal treatment across the country. That would be one of the things we would seek to do.