Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Is there a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation in this context? The loads of money, resources, time and billing and all the administration that goes into the existence of a private health insurance industry is all waste. It is accounted for as health spending. We are often told Ireland has a very high level of health spending, but it actually has nothing to do with the provision of front-line health services. It is, instead, parasitical on the health services. That is my view. I wonder what the witnesses think.