Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I do not believe so. There is a separate portion of money to do that, so I do not believe that. I will check, but it is certainly not my understanding. I remain concerned about the number of children referred, or not referred, for international surgery. As I said earlier it is a source of deep frustration to me that those services are not being utilised. Part of the audit is an analysis of equity of access on the waiting lists, which is something we have not done previously. This qualitative assessment involves talking to parents and patients and asking them how they ended up in Blackrock, for example, and what the pathway was. I have spoken to parents who told me that the international option was not provided to them or was provided to them too late in the process. I am not clear on it, but I asked for an audit into spinal services, neurological surgery and another medical area in CHI precisely to try to determine that, such was my concern.

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