Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise this important issue on the Adjournment. Many people await a response in respect of the health repayment scheme. The issue I raise concerns a lady in my constituency, God rest her, who died on 5 January 2002. Numerous representations and requests have been made by her family and a second application form was submitted under the repayment scheme when the first form went missing.

Since the establishment of a process to make repayments, parliamentary questions submitted in 2006, 2007 and 2008 have been met with the same extraordinary response, one which I specifically reject as inconsistent and incompatible with the rules applying to the Houses of the Oireachtas. As parliamentary questions pertaining to this matter are forwarded to the Health Service Executive, Deputies do not receive a reply in the House. Instead we receive letters thanking us for our recent correspondence seeking information regarding an application and stating that data protection rules governing the repayment process are particularly strict and primarily aimed at protecting privacy. This is a load of rubbish and the suggestion that the Data Protection Act precludes the HSE from providing an answer is nothing more than an attempt to cover up inadequacies and inefficiencies.

The Data Protection Act does not apply to Members of the House as we are registered under the Act. I reject any attempt by external bodies, agencies or individuals to withhold information from the Parliament on the basis that they are prevented from supplying such information under the terms of the Data Protection Act. No such rule or regulation applies to Parliament and any attempt to subvert the activity of the Oireachtas by making a suggestion of this nature is illegal and unconstitutional.

I am sure many other people find themselves in the same position as the family of the woman in question who has made regular inquiries. An agency received a substantial amount of money to operate the repayment scheme. While I do not propose to provide a figure because it does not improve with repetition, it irritates me to receive letters suggesting I cannot be given information because the HSE is precluded from imparting such information under the Data Protection Act. This is not the case.

I ask the Minister of State to get hold of the relevant person by the scruff of the neck, give him or her a good shake and inform him or her that Deputies have had enough of this nonsense. Let us deal with the issue and pay the bills. Failing that, we should walk off the pitch.

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