Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 July 2022

Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill 2022: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

3:52 pm

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 4, after line 6, to insert the following:

3.The Minister shall, within 3 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas setting out the implications of extending the exemption from statutory charges for in-patient and day case care in public hospitals to all cancer patients.”.

I am not going to repeat the points made by Members of the Social Democrats and other Members of the House a number of months ago when we debated a private members' motion on the need to remove inpatient charges for cancer patients. There is an unanswerable case for doing that. Due to the constraints of the opposition, I cannot move an amendment to ask the Minister to introduce the measure. The amendment seeks to require the Minister to produce a report on the implications of extending the exemption from inpatient charges to all cancer patients. On amendment No. 9, the Sláintecare report recommended the removal of all inpatient charges, across the board, for the whole population. That was to happen in year 1 of the implementation of the reforms. I made points on the issue last week on Second Stage. There is no justification for charging people when they have to be admitted to hospital. I ask the Minister to agree to produce a report on the implications of the measures set out in amendments Nos. 8 and 9 within the next three months.

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