Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On the legislation question, our legislation is not strong in terms of eligibility and there is a big gap there. It is a matter of custom and practice, local arrangements or whatever. It is not set down in legislation what public patients should be entitled to and that certainly is a problem. Recently, we had Professor Allyson Pollock speaking to us. She was strongly in favour of a recommendation that we should start with legislation which puts a duty on the Minister for Health to provide a particular package of services and if one starts with the legislation, the services will follow. That was her view. I would be interested to hear Dr. Figueras's view on it.