To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQT 1235/22-27, and having seen his officials' options paper, whether he is content to proceed with reinstating the cross-border scheme.

As outlined in my statement to the Assembly, I plan to establish a new Waiting List Reduction Reimbursement Scheme, as part of a package of initiatives to tackle hospital care backlogs.

The Scheme will commence in June 2025 and will give patients, who are ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland, the option to seek and pay for treatment in the private sector and have the cost reimbursed, up to the cost of the treatment to HSC in Northern Ireland. Patients will only be able to access the Scheme once they have waited on an HSC hospital treatment waiting list for two years.

The new Scheme will be initiated on a phased approach. The first phase will allow reimbursements for treatment in the Republic of Ireland (RoI). The second phase will be introduced at a later date and will see the geographical scope of the Scheme expanded to all countries in the European Union (EU).