Ms Aoife Conduit:

We had an interdepartmental group with all the relevant Departments on it in terms of drawing up these proposals and the Bill. We will certainly have to have a bilateral working group with the Department of Health and the HSE on the implementation of the stuff around the medical card, eligibility and all of that. We will work closely, as we do anyway, with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on the national centre for research and remembrance, NCRR, and other aspects of the package of proposals. We are used to working across government in these areas and will continue to do so. It was clear to us in developing these packages how dependent and interdependent we are on other Departments and agencies. In its implementation, we will work closely with them.