Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----in which access is based on clinical need. What I do not support is handing over the future of the Irish health service to private, for-profit health insurers, which is precisely what lies at the heart of the policy in this regard. I would have thought this is the complete opposite what the Labour Party stands for. The fundamental question which arises relates to circumstances where a person will - under the proposed system - require access to the Irish health service. Who will determine the nature of and terms relating to that access? Will it be a doctor or will it be a private health insurance company? All the indications point to the fact that those in the private health insurance industry will make the decisions to which I refer.

There is another way to proceed, namely, by establishing a public health system fully funded from taxation. That is the alternative.

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