Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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3277. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of abolishing accident and emergency charges. [41209/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Normal patient activity has been affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result 2020 is not representative of normal services, and therefore the 2019 position would currently be the best representation of the likely costs associated with abolishing those service charges.

The Emergency Department charge is recorded by the HSE as an out-patient charge. In 2019 €20m was collected in Outpatient Charges from Acute Hospitals, which predominantly relates to Accident and Emergency charges. Therefore €20m is an approximate estimate of the full year cost of abolishing accident and emergency charges.