Dr. Gabrielle Colleran:

What Mr. Varley was articulating and what Dr. Durcan referred to were our concerns with the funding model. Our acute hospitals get €4.5 billion in funding, so €700 million of funding from private health insurance being taken out is a huge loss of funding. I work in paediatrics and very few children have private health insurance. I do not know when they are coming to me if they have private heath insurance. My concern, when I look at our recruitment issue, is that our recruitment issues are most prevalent in the specialties where there is the least private practice and the most type A contracts, such as emergency, psychiatry and my specialty, which is paediatric radiology. I am concerned that if the private income were to be removed, our recruitment and retention crisis would get worse. I work with equipment in both of the hospitals I work with that is beyond its end of life and has not been replaced. There is a huge need for investment in the capacity, the people and the infrastructure. I worry that €700 million a year being taken out of our €4.5 billion a year funding will have a catastrophic impact if it is not replaced. I am being very honest with the Deputy on that.