Mr. Brian Fitzgerald:

There is. I think I dealt with the complexity point earlier. To be clear, the public system may levy a charge on private patients if the private patient elects to use private health insurance, regardless of complexity. If the patient chooses not to, he is treated and pays the Government levy or uses a medical card. Some patients have medical cards and under private health insurance they do not get a charge.

Operators in the private system have contracts with insurers. We agree a price for them. Typically, every two years we agree a contract and a schedule of prices with all the insurers, including those associated with the Garda, ESB and the Prison Officers Association. That is how we survive.

The reference to the 5% was purely a reference to our need to invest 5% of our revenue every year just to keep our fabric.