Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, was informed this morning by the chief executive of a hospital in the North. This Saturday I have a bus going up to the North. I went on Radio Kerry this morning to discuss this important issue. I raised this with the Taoiseach in the Dáil before. To be clear, 5,500 patients have used this scheme every year for the past four years. It is not only for cataract operations; it is also for having tonsils removed and orthopaedic procedures, to name a few. If we take it that 5,500 people will be unable to travel to the North after 1 January and if we put those 5,500 on to our already overburdened waiting lists, it will cause chaos in our health service.

I am pleading with the Taoiseach today to ensure there is a bilateral agreement with the North of Ireland. We cannot have a situation whereby the only way people can get cross-border treatment is by going out of this country to some place like Spain. That will not work. The age profile of the people is such that many of them are too elderly to travel like that. I am pleading with the Taoiseach to do something for these people.

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