I propose to take Questions Nos. 127, 151 and 161 together.
The provision of chiropody services is a matter for the local area of the Health Service Executive. This is a service which it is not statutorily obliged to provide but a variety of arrangements are in place nationally under arrangements made by the former Eastern Regional Health Authority, ERHA, and other health boards.
Generally speaking, fees paid to private health care practitioners for the provision of services to public patients are reviewed periodically and in that context I have requested my Department, in conjunction with the Health Service Executive, to look specifically at the current levels of fees paid to chiropodists participating in the chiropody scheme of the former ERHA. Arrangements are being made by my officials to progress this matter. I wish to restate that I consider it is inappropriate for chiropodists to charge a top-up fee to elderly public patients who have been deemed eligible for services under the scheme. My Department wrote to the Health Service Executive on 26 January 2005 regarding the inappropriateness of these additional charges.