Mr. Seán Moynihan:

The Deputy is probably already seeing it. There is data available that has been published by the Department of Health and the HSE. Obviously, in high-density, easy-to-move-around areas a lot of private contracts are awarded. As per our submission, the HSE then also has first choice. In more rural or more hard-to-reach places we are going to have a situation where the NGO providers are left to do that and some of that may be done at a loss or possibly not at all. Ultimately, there must be something here that levels the playing pitch. Our fear around the privatisation of this is a situation where people may cherry-pick what is very profitable and not go into a situation to ensure there is community access. With things like VHI in the past there have been measures like community rating to ensure there is equal access. Something like that needs to be looked at to ensure we do not end up in that situation.