Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is okay. I want to move on to the issue of the operation of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF. There is a major problem with delays in getting access to treatment. If someone has an 18-month or two-year delay in getting access to treatment, they may very well then require a higher degree of treatment, at a far higher cost. Has the NTPF been analysed regarding how we can expedite the process from the time it is decided that a person needs treatment to the time they go on the fund? I refer to the decisions that have now been made in relation to treatment abroad and the entitlement. These are different from the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Do we now need to review the process?