Information Act: The National Treatment Purchase Fund is one of a number of bodies in the healthcare sector which is to be brought under the Freedom of Information Act for the first time in the near future.
This means the public will be able to make requests for access to copies of records and documentation held by the fund.
A recent report from the Comptroller and Auditor General found huge variations in the amount the fund pays different hospitals for the same procedures.
It also found that many public hospitals referring patients to the fund for private treatment last year ended up treating the patients privately themselves.
It is likely therefore that many requests will be made to the fund for information on how it spends its annual budget, which this year stood at €60 million.
The fund was set up in 2002 to organise and fund private treatment for public patients who had spent long periods on hospital waiting lists.
It has succeeded to date in removing more than 35,000 patients from waiting lists.
There are also plans to extend the Freedom of Information Act to a range of other bodies in the health sector in the near future including the regulatory bodies for the medical and nursing professions, the Medical Council and An Bord Altranais.
Making the announcement, the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said the extension of the Act would be subject to approval by each House of the Oireachtas.
He said he intended to bring forward the necessary regulations to provide for the extension of Act to these bodies shortly.
There would be a lead-in period of five months to allow organisations make arrangements to deal with requests made under the Act, he added.
The other organisations which he said would come under the Act shortly include the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, the Health Insurance Authority, the Health Research Board, the Health Services Accreditation Board, the National Breast Screening Board, the National Cancer Registry, the Office of Tobacco Control, the Opticians Board, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the Dental Council, the Dental Health Foundation, the Drug Treatment Centre Board, the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council and the Special Residential Services Board.