Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the additional funding for the NTPF, for which our party spokesperson advocated strongly. I also welcome the progress that has been made with the cross-Border scheme. Many patients go to Northern Ireland to access services, as I mentioned during a previous debate. Those who read Belfast newspapers, particularly the nationalist ones, as I do on a daily basis, will see advertisements from our private hospitals seeking patients from Northern Ireland to avail of the cross-Border directive. Surely the Department, the Minister, or the HSE could pull this together. If there is capacity to carry out procedures here, let them be carried out here instead of people having to head to Belfast or elsewhere in Northern Ireland. It would cost less if those people could undergo those procedures in our own State. It does not make sense that clinics and hospitals in Northern Ireland are looking to attract our patients while private hospitals in our State are looking to attract patients from Northern Ireland. Surely this can be managed in a much better way for the same money.

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