Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

And getting longer. The big problem used to be to making sure you wrote to the right person and got a reply. It was always difficult to get a reply. Some of those present might remember those days. I devised a system that let me know at a glance when and to whom the letter was written, the number of times the person was reminded and the result. Up until a few years ago, a coded number was used in the immigration system. It is now known as a legacy number. It has been discontinued. There is now a different code. It is not possible for me or any other public representative to understand what the code represents. It could mean anything. It could be sensitive information. In any event, one does not get it. It was easy to deal with the queries in the older system as things were simpler to identify. Broadening the system is fine but if that means a diminution in confidentiality, it will cause a problem. I hope I am wrong but I have my doubts about it. If it takes four, five or ten years to perfect it and integrate it into the system, that is not in the interests of anybody, particularly the patients who may be waiting.

I will finish with my regular gripe in respect of the medical card system and the information system that comes from there. One has to repeatedly remind people in that regard. It is almost as if one is infringing on their privacy in order to get information one already has.