Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Next week bus 67 heads to the North from both Cork and Kerry. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and I have been organising those buses, as the Minister has acknowledged. He says that we should get away from people needing to go to the North and I fully support him in that. It is not just the cataracts; it is the hips and the knees, and getting a simple thing like an MRI scan. Someone cannot get an MRI scan done without waiting for weeks here. We are light years away from resolving these issues here and until that is the case, I am asking the Minister to give more detail on the continuation of the Northern Ireland scheme that was introduced for this year.

When I raised this issue last year, we were led to believe that it was resolved. A Fine Gael Senator from west Cork said that it had been resolved for the long term and advised us to stop scaremongering. However, the Minister is telling me today that he is looking into it. I ask him to give me more details on what he is looking into. Will the Government fund it? Will it continue? I would appreciate an answer to those questions.

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