Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the interest of balance I should put on record that the Department and the three private insurance companies, excluding the one which is new to the market, have agreed a process for 2012 which benefits the State to the tune of €125 million. I should make this clear to be fair to the insurers. However, to ordinary people the amount of money which remains uncollected sounds huge. They see their premiums increase and money being removed from the health budget while €100 million, which is no small change, lies out there uncollected. This is the point we are making.