Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the sentiment of the amendment and understand from where the Deputy is coming in that regard. The idea is to abolish the step effect whereby when a person reaches 21, the cost of health insurance increases substantially, the result being that very often the person does not continue to pay for it or, if his or her parents are paying for it, they discontinue doing so. The date of 1 May was chosen for two reasons. First, we were told during consultations with the industry that administratively it would take some time to amend their computer systems and get everything in place.

Second, the lifetime community rating loading comes into effect on 1 May. As such, we believed it made more sense to pick the same date to make both changes instead of requiring the industry to change its computer and administrative systems and pricings twice in the space of five months. Aside from being administratively complicated, it would have caused confusion.