Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's comments and on that basis I am prepared to withdraw the amendment and resubmit it on Report Stage. That will give him the opportunity to consider it. I accept that it is a complex area and it may not be possible for the Minister to formulate a simple answer. I am not seeking such a simple answer. We will have very detailed discussions on the implementation of universal health insurance. If this is laid down as a marker, better brains than ours could formulate a solution. We have many of the finest actuaries in the world in this country that could come up with some incentive. If we write into primary legislation that in universal health insurance there will be an incentive, the Minister will be facilitated in signing a regulation to implement the section in the 2001 Act. That would allow health insurers to tell people there is an incentive for people in their 20s or early 30s or 40s to take out health insurance over and above the reward of just being covered.

The difficulty at present is that with the cost of cover rising every year, many people are deciding to stay out. They are healthy and fit and do not see the need to get cover now. They might decide to do it in five years, when universal health insurance, UHI, comes in. The people who have paid health insurance for years will be short-changed under the new UHI system, and they should be given some recognition in that regard.

I will withdraw the amendment and resubmit it on Report Stage. That will give the Minister an opportunity to examine it and, I hope, draw up his own amendment in this area. We all agree on what we want to do and it would help to address some of spiralling costs at present.