Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I thank Dr. Turner for his interesting presentation. I want to track back to a point he raised at the outset. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seemed to me that Dr. Turner's argument was that because of the embedded private health insurers and private hospitals within the health services, the concept of a single-tier health service was not achievable and that in his view, a more realistic goal was to try to moderate the character of the two-tier health service we have? Let me flip the argument on its head as our mandate is to deliver single-tier health care. Is Dr. Turner saying that a single-tier health care service could only be delivered if we were to effectively nationalise the private hospitals and bypass the private insurers by developing a tax base system which provides health care free at the point of use? Obviously that would involve a far greater level of upheaval and change and that is a matter to be debated by the committee. Will he clarify whether he is he saying that if one wants to achieve the goal of a single-tier health care system, one would need to take steps of that kind?