Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 245: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that insurance companies who require detailed health assessments can currently obtain expensive test results free of charge when they use general practitioners as the facilitator of these health assessments; and her views on whether it would be appropriate to arrange for cost recovery from the insurance companies for such services. [21812/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Entitlement to health services in Ireland is primarily based on residency and means. Any person, regardless of nationality, who is accepted by the Health Service Executive as being ordinarily resident in Ireland is entitled to either full eligibility to health services under either category 1 (medical card holders) or category 2 (limited eligibility). While people in category 2 are liable for a charge for attendance at accident and emergency departments, people in both categories are entitled to outpatient public hospital services including consultant services free of charge. Therefore, when a person with either full or limited eligibility attends a GP and is then referred for public hospital outpatient services, including diagnostic tests, those services are provided without charge. Work is under way in my Department on a new legislative framework to provide for clear statutory provisions on eligibility and entitlement for health and personal social services, including appropriate charging mechanisms. The aim is to produce a clear set of statutory provisions that ensure equity and transparency and to bring the system up to date with developments in service delivery and technology that have occurred since the Health Act 1970.