Mr. Damien Quigley:

On the question around finance, we have not just guaranteed finance to everybody. We need to impose a certain limit on ourselves. Our funding body, ANSAC Credit Union, has been good to us and we are growing our loan book month on month. There were difficulties in the past getting reimbursements. Thankfully, the HSE has got more staff on board and we hope to see reimbursements flow a bit more quickly. The sooner we get reimbursements in, the more people can use it and the more people get access to treatment. We hope that, as more people join, we can increase the amount of money we are prepared to borrow. With that, we need staff to process those people. It goes back to the certainty to move ahead and do it.

On shortfalls, 40% to 50% of our members, heading up, have typical military service injuries, whether it be knees or hips. Kingsbridge have sat down with us and agreed treatment rates which match the HSE reimbursement rate so that patients could have little or no shortfall. As we discover new types of procedures, operations and treatments people need, we sometimes uncover different shortfalls. For instance, a hip arthroscopy is one for which the HSE reimbursement rate is less than generous for the amount of work carried out. There is a significant shortfall in relation to that. There are other issues around shoulders, ankles and so on but we have built up that fund. First we knock heads with Kingsbridge to see if they can reduce prices to reduce the shortfalls. Then we have our fighting fund. We do not restrict access to treatment for members. If there is a big shortfall, that is what we have set up the fund for. It is so the patient gets the treatment, first and foremost.