Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 July 2026
308. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Health the reason the HSE does not fully reimburse patients who avail of the cross border directive through providers such as Kingsbridge in northern Ireland, in circumstances where those patients were on Irish public waiting lists and had been informed that their procedure would not be available within six months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50061/26]
View answerThe Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme (NIPHS) has been in effective operation since 1 January 2021. This Scheme was introduced to mitigate the loss of access to care from private providers in Northern Ireland under the EU Cross Border Directive (CBD), which ceased to apply as a result of Brexit.
The current administrative scheme enables persons ordinarily resident in the State to access and be reimbursed for private healthcare in Northern Ireland by the HSE, provided such healthcare is publicly available within Ireland. Such healthcare will be reimbursed at the cost of providing that treatment in the State or the cost of same in Northern Ireland, whichever is the lesser. The HSE provides further information for patients on the HSE NIPHS website: www2.hse.ie/services/schemes-allowances/niphs/
It is important to note that reimbursement, under the provisions of the CBD and NIPHS, is confined to the costs of the care itself and does not include any additional costs, such as travel or accommodation costs, incurred by the patient. Reimbursement rates are set by the HSE. And are those applicable to the cost of treatment in the Public Health Service in Ireland.
