Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will resist the opportunity to make a jaundiced comment about that. It is a case not just of what we want to deliver for people but also of how we do it. Nye Bevan saw the instrument for doing this as a national health service free at the point of use, funded from general taxation of a progressive character and underpinned by legislation putting the responsibility on the Minister for Health. I put it to the Minister for comment that we are never going to deliver universal single-tier health insurance in this country without an Irish national health service of the type described that fully integrates under the banner of the public health system. This does involve measures such as nationalisation of the section 38, section 39 and private health care sectors.