Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As I am sure Deputy Ó Caoláin has, Deputy Kelleher has carefully gone through the legislation line by line, as is his want, and no amendment was tabled. I am not minded to accept such an amendment because all we are doing is giving the power to the Minister that he may issue guidelines. It is simply a repetition of the current position. Deputy Kelleher referred to the legislation changing the criteria. The provisions in section 5 will not change the criteria. The Minister already has the power to issue guidelines and that has been the case since the 1990s in respect of how ordinary residence should be interpreted by the HSE. These are just guidelines and the HSE makes a decision, not the Minister. At the risk of upsetting Members, we are in danger of seeing difficulties where there are none.

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