Ms Margaret O'Donnell:

We do not have numbers but we know it is happening. There are a lot of advertisements for having things done in different countries. There is one big commercial group which advertises in Ireland but takes the patients to the United Kingdom for the surgery, and then they come back to Ireland. That is not terribly clear from the beginning and patients will see somebody locally in a clinic here, but the surgery is done elsewhere. Those patients are not necessarily choosing to have their surgery elsewhere. It happens that way. Then there is a separate group who decide they will go on the cosmetic surgery tourism holiday and go for a beach trip after their treatment. I have seen a couple of patients who have come back with problems. That is not to say everybody will be treated badly but it makes it difficult for a patient coming back whenever he or she has a problem to seek follow-up.