Dr. Brian Turner:

Based on the 2013 figures in the health system, we were ranked seventh or eighth in the OECD in terms of per capitaspending. Just under €6 billion of that is private spending. Slightly over half of that again would be out of pocket payments and slightly under half would be private health insurance. A small element would be charitable spending. I mentioned in my opening statement the increased cost sharing in recent years in terms of the increased drug payment scheme threshold, the introduction of, and increase in, prescription charges, increased accident and emergency department charges and the increased statutory bed charge. If we were to try to reduce the burden of out of pocket payments and unwind the cost shifting that happened in 2008 and 2014, that would have implications for the approximately €3 billion spent on out of pocket payments out of that €19 billion. How far and how quickly to go would be a matter for discussion. Out of pocket payments, which is one of the most regressive forms of health funding, amounts to approximately €3 billion.

A new bed capacity review would be needed to get an exact figure. I am not sure we would need a bed capacity review to tell us we are under-resourced for beds. We would need a review to put a figure on it. In the meantime, there is probably broad agreement that we need more hospital beds.