Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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1909.To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to accident and emergency charges of over €100 for parents of children with specialist care needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[35793/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health (Out-Patient Charges) Regulations 2019 provides that, subject to certain exemptions, a charge shall be made for out-patient services provided at designated centres including an emergency department (€100) and a minor injury unit (€75). These exemptions include a person with a medical card, a person who has a letter of referral from a registered medical practitioner and a person whose attendance results in admission as an in-patient.

Subsection 5 of the Health (Out-Patient Charges) Regulations 2019 lists exemptions from the charge for out-patient services provided. Subsection 5(d) provides that the charge shall not be payable by "a child, referred to in section 56(3) of the Act, in respect of diseases and disabilities of a permanent or long term nature prescribed by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform". On the basis of the exemption in section 5(d), the €100/€75 charge does not apply where out-patient services are made available in respect of a prescribed disease or disability to a child. The conditions prescribed for the purposes of subsection 56(3) are set out in the Health Services (Amendment) Regulations 1987, Statutory Instrument 114/1987, as follows: "mental handicap, mental illness, phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, haemophilia and cerebral palsy."