Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My thinking is similar to Deputy Kelleher's in the sense that I have always been worried about a number of issues in respect of health insurance premia. When I was a young person - I know it was a while ago but I can still remember that far back - we were charged a fee because we were allegedly supplementing older people. The age profile of the population has changed since then. Many more young people have come into the country in the meantime, some of whom emigrated and returned. They are being told they are paying a higher premium because insurers have to look after men and women in my age group. I have tabled countless parliamentary questions but I have never been able to find out exactly where the money goes in terms of the comparison between the public and private sectors. I have never been able to get that information to my satisfaction. I have been suspicious over the years and I have never been able to find out to what extent the credit applied for the pain and suffering my peers and I experienced as a result of paying more to carry the older age groups in terms of risk equalisation when I was aged 25 or 30. I do not know what the purpose of that was but the current younger generations are allegedly paying a similar surcharge for the same reason. The briefing suggested by the Minister might be useful. We might get some information that ordinarily would not be available.