Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 329: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the charges payable in respect of people who are in public beds in hospitals; the amount payable by a person in a calendar year or any other 12-month period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22917/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The current public hospital statutory in-patient charge is €66 per night, up to a maximum of €660 in any twelve consecutive months (the charge is not reckoned on the basis of the calendar year). There is no charge for outpatient services, other than in respect of attendance at accident and emergency departments which is subject to a charge of €66 where the patient does not have a referral note from his/her doctor. Persons with full eligibility, i.e. medical card holders, are exempt from these charges, as are women receiving services in respect of motherhood; children up to the age of six weeks; children suffering from diseases prescribed under section 52(2) of the Health Act 1970; children in respect of defects noticed at a health examination held pursuant to the service provided under section 66 of the Health Act 1970; persons receiving services for the diagnosis or treatment of certain infectious diseases; persons who are subject to a charge under the Health (Charges for In-Patient Services) Regulations, 2005 (S.I No. 276 of 2005); persons who are deemed, pursuant to section 45(7) of the Health Act 1970, to be persons with full eligibility in relation to an in-patient service (undue hardship test); persons who, pursuant to section 2 of the Health (Amendment) Act 1996, in the opinion of the chief executive officer of a health board, have contracted hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin-Anti-D or the receipt within the State of another blood product or a blood transfusion.