Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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503. To ask the Minister for Health if he will waive the €80 fee which haemochromatosis patients who do not qualify for a medical card must pay each time they get a venesection; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that persons are turning away from treatment due to this charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39640/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Health Act 1970 (as amended) provides that all people ordinarily resident in the country are entitled, subject to certain charges, to  public in-patient hospital services including consultant services and to public out-patient hospital services. Under the Health (In-Patients Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2008, a person who has been referred to a hospital for an in-patient service, including that provided on a day case basis, will have to pay the statutory daily charge, currently €80 per day, up to a maximum of €800 per year. On this basis, where venesection is classed as a day case procedure and is not carried out in an out patient setting, the public in-patient charge applies. There are no plans at present to exclude haemochromatosis patients from this charge.