EU Directives
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

I cannot speak to the specific staff numbers. I generally find it is about process change as much as staff increases, so I think it is a measure of both. I will look for an interim report, probably in October, as to how the work is going. I made the point that it is possible to change processes. For example, this time last year, I gave the Medical Council a significant challenge to sort out its backlog of people applying to be doctors in this country. It was a patient safety issue not to have had them. By September, it had that done. These things can be done with a measure of focus, and I expect it to be done in this case.
In relation to the specific question about interest and bank loans, there is a difficulty with this. The reimbursement is limited to the eligible healthcare costs that would have been met by the public health service. There is no provision for the reimbursement of interest charges, borrowing costs or other consequential financial costs. Reimbursement under the cross-border directive is governed by European and national legislation. Reimbursement of additional costs is not envisaged by the directive because it was never expected people would be waiting in that period. I appreciate the unfairness point the Deputy made. That is why I am saying these delays are absolutely unacceptable and we need to get back but there is not provision in that scheme. We have no flexibility to change a European scheme of that kind in relation to additional costs beyond the healthcare costs.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09