Cancer care costs
Gary Gannon asked when the Government would act on the Dáil motion to abolish inpatient charges for cancer patients, end debt collection for hospital charges and cap hospital parking fees. The Taoiseach said the Government would keep reviewing charges and would take the motion into account.
This morning, the Dáil unanimously passed a Social Democrats motion on the cost of cancer care. It was hugely welcome and it was a very unifying debate in the Chamber. The motion had three asks, namely, to abolish the €80 inpatient charge for those receiving cancer treatment, to direct the HSE to end the practice of using debt collectors to collect hospital charges from cancer patients and to honour the commitment in the programme for Government to introduce a cap on the maximum daily charge for car parking for visitors in all public hospitals. When does the Taoiseach intend to act on that motion? When will we see some satisfaction in terms of deliverables?
Comment on this
The Government is constantly looking at charges, particularly in the health area. The Deputy will know that in the budget we reduced inpatient paediatric charges and the threshold for the drug payment scheme. We will consistently and on an ongoing basis continue to look at charges. We will take the Social Democrats motion into account.