Question from Deputy Ken O'Flynn - PQ 48996-26

To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 2547 of 9 June 2026, the number of the 12,899 respiratory medicine claims rejected under the PCRS between 2023 and 2026 to date, that remain unpaid following resubmission; the breakdown of this unrecovered figure, by year and, by rejection reason; the steps her Department and the HSE are taking to address the volume of rejections recorded under the reasons “item claimed already paid” and “claim set to pay or already paid”, which together account for more rejected claims than any other category in each year from 2023 to 2026; whether this pattern has been examined as evidence of a systemic processing or duplicate-billing fault within the PCRS claims system rather than genuine ineligibility; and if she will make a statement on the matter.