Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a problem in Border counties of which I was only made aware last week. When a person living in the Republic suffers trauma or an emergency and is shipped to the nearest hospital, where it is located across the Border, he or she will be treated on arrival, but he or she must pay for treatment. I refer to a person brought to Altnagelvin or Craigavon hospital. Form E111 does not cover a person for medical procedures where he or she is brought to the hospital in an emergency. If on a visit to Enniskillen I have a heart attack and I am brought to hospital, I will be treated for free. It will cost me nothing, but if I am living on the Republic side of the Border, have a heart attack and I am brought to the nearest hospital across the Border, I will be treated as a paying patient. It is an anomaly in the system which must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. As we head into Brexit, I have no idea where we are going with respect to cross-Border medical care.

I have complimented the Leader on the way he runs the House and continue to believe he does an excellent job. However, I have a huge issue with the amount of time allocated for statements on something that was an emergency three weeks ago, namely, the state of the health service. I am not so sure it is beneficial to the Minister to be here today when we could deal with Private Members' business to facilitate the passage of legislation several Members want to introduce. In saying that I am not being critical as there are times when the making of statements is really important. However, the medical crisis has been hammered to death and I am not sure the making of statements here today will help to get one person off a trolley. In fact, the Minister would probably be better employed in doing something to get patients off trolleys rather than having to listen to Senators talk about geographical constituencies which we do not represent in this House. As such, it might be something the Leader and the Committee on Procedure and Privileges could discuss in the future. While there are times when the making of statements is vital, the time to make them is not after the event.