Mr. Tony O'Brien:

Variation existed at the regional and even at the micro-regional level. We must remember, of course, that it is not that long since health services were provided by a multiplicity of health boards. In respect of discretionary items, the Health Act 1970 confers that discretion on the chief executive officers of those health boards and although they came together to develop an uniform statement of discretion, it was implemented in over one hundred different places by a hundred different sets of people, many of whom did not know the other hundred. It was inevitable that there would be inconsistent application of an apparently consistent policy.