Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is a key piece concerning the discretionary element of the scheme, which is that the consultant should state that the person needs to be accompanied. People probably do not know about that, but they need to.

A discretionary scheme has flexibility that does not apply to other schemes, which is helpful. Nonetheless, that discretion is not often applied evenly across the country. Therefore, while it is a good thing to have such discretion and flexibility, it often does not have the result one would expect. It is an issue of communication both for people exercising the discretion and those applying for the scheme. That type of information needs to be available to applicants for the treatment abroad scheme. It would be helpful if the relevant data were part and parcel of the information leaflet on the scheme.

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