Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I can help. It is not to do with whether a person is English or Irish but whether he or she has been resident in England for a sufficient period to have paid national insurance contributions, which give persons in England the equivalent of medical card holder status. If, therefore, the person is still resident there or a pensioner here, he or she will be treated as though he or she was a medical card holder, which means the person is exempt from the same charges as medical card holders are exempt from.

Then there is a global reimbursement arrangement with the UK Department of Health.