Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

That it is not sustainable, particularly in the context of doctors seeking to work in areas of disadvantage — and neither is it fair to the patients. The hope is that we will have a single capitation fee for all patients over 70, the same fee regardless whether they had a means-tested card before they reached that age. I believe that is appropriate.

Dr. Michael Barry, the leading expert in Ireland, who heads the pharmaco-economic school in Trinity College Dublin and is attached to St. James's Hospital, as well as being a member of the board of HIQA, is going to oversee a process regarding prescribing practices and so on. A combination of the capitation, the prescribing practices and the 20,000 who will not qualify for medical cards, will deliver savings of €100 million during 2009. The incomes about which we are talking here are incomes earned by people who leave employment——

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