Last night, the 'Belfast or Blind' bus no. 63 arrived back in Cork and Kerry. It was the second of two buses in three days which were full of people relieved to have had eyesight-saving surgery in Belfast under the cross-border directive, where those people in the Republic on a waiting list for operations, such as for a cataract, can have the procedure done in the North and then be reimbursed. In recent months, in respect of the thousands of people in pain and going blind, I have tried to get clarity regarding if and what type of a scheme will be in place in the months to come, but to no avail.

On 25 November, the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, told us that the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has tasked departmental officials "with examining the feasibility of implementing" a cross-border-type arrangement. The Minister of State went on to say "That work, which is detailed and complex" was under way, and the Minister for Health sent me a letter to the same effect the other day.

In The Southern Star, my local newspaper, this morning the Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard, stated my call for clarity on the scheme and its continuation was grossly irresponsible and that I was scaremongering, that Fine Gael had secured a deal last year and that he had no doubt that deal meant things would continue as before for everyone seeking surgery abroad. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, were unable to announce any new cross-border deal in the last two weeks. Can the Tánaiste explain the new cross-border scheme to which Senator Lombard has referred?

I cannot give as clear a reply as I would like because some of these issues are still being worked out. I can say that the cross-border directive ceases to apply to Northern Ireland and Great Britain when those areas leave the European Union on 1 January. It will continue to apply for people travelling to other parts of the European Union, but we are trying to put alternative arrangements in place to maintain the status quo when it comes to cross-border healthcare. Existing arrangements which see people, for example, in Donegal using Altnagelvin Hospital for cancer or cardiology services and people from Northern Ireland using Dublin hospitals for cardiothoracic surgery, will all remain in place.

We will provide a scheme for residents of Northern Ireland which will be the same as the European Health Insurance Card, EHIC, scheme. People living in Britain will no longer be eligible for EHIC, which is the new version of the old E111 form, but residents of Northern Ireland will still have it and we will fund that from the Irish Exchequer. It seems that under the common travel area, CTA, arrangements that Irish citizens in Northern Ireland and Britain, and vice versa, will continue to be able to avail of each other's health services, but that might not apply to people resident in one jurisdiction travelling to a private hospital in the other jurisdiction. I think that is the question which the Deputy is asking and that has not been worked out yet I am afraid.