Mr. Liam Downey:

Of course. It concerned inpatient and outpatient day care treatment, etc. There are other opportunities for further development. The way to manage costs in the health care sector is to treat patients at the lowest cost point in the system. That is why we seek to avoid or reduce the length of hospital stays. Treating patients in outpatient, day care and side-room scenarios, or ideally in a person's home, is the best way to achieve this, but it can also be done in primary care centres. This is the same model of care that the public system is trying to develop and it makes sense from a health insurance standpoint. We have much in common with the public health system in that regard.

In our discussions with the providers of services we will be continuing to do everything possible to ensure patients are treated in appropriate settings and at the lowest cost. There will be more opportunities in this regard in the future and we will be continuing to target them. I cannot specify the exact nature of the savings involved, but what we are doing will directly address the question of affordability of health insurance, which is a major issue to which we continue to return. As has been pointed out, we have an increasingly ageing population and there is going to be pressure because of the increasing cost of health care. We need to ensure health care is provided, in so far as is possible, in the lowest cost setting. We must also ensure it is provided in settings which are most suitable and convenient for the patient. We have good synergy between these two objectives.

On the conflict in the appointment of the CEO, I understand the point made. However, I do not see any conflict in that it is the board's responsibility to identify a CEO. In order to facilitate, supervise and manage the process in that regard, a committee of board members is set up. That is what happened in this instance. We also use external resources such as a search company, advertising, etc. That is also what happened in this case. I was chair of the remuneration committee and was also appointed as chair of the selection committee. We used external consultants to help us. The Minister for Health has final responsibility for signing off on the approval of the successful candidate. It is part of a board's responsibility to appoint a CEO. It just so happens that I was a member of the committee which did so in this instance. Other members of the board were also involved, which is normal practice in such instances.