asked the Minister for Health the average cost of processing an application for a medical card including the means testing of the applicant.
Written Answers - Medical Card Means Test.
353.
The cost of processing an application for a medical card, including the means testing of the applicant, is likely to vary considerably depending on, for example, the amount and quality of information in the original application, whether the applicant is an employee or is self-employed, the number of sources of income involved, the extent of household and family commitments. This cost consists mainly of the labour cost in processing the application, together with the cost of postage, paper and printing. The labour costs include the time of the staff involved in the process and, as the staff are also involved in duties other than processing applications for medical cards, the costs are difficult to isolate without a specific study being set up.
The full information which would be required to calculate the average cost of processing an application for a medical card is, therefore, not available and I do not think that the cost of setting up a specific study would be justified.