John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The health budget and the Department of Health and Children are in safe hands with the Tánaiste, as the record proves.

I again wish to refer to the Supreme Court decision because the findings have not been clearly and properly dealt with. It is important to reflect on one particular point. The provisions of the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2004 that provide for prospective charging of inpatients are constitutional. There is no constitutional prohibition on implementing a charge in the future for inpatient services. We must be very honest with the public. Contending there is a likelihood that people can attend as inpatients in hospitals free of charge is nonsense. There is no point in pretending or wishing that was the case. Clearly, that is not the issue. We must welcome the fact that the Government, through the Tánaiste, recognised that the Bill would be tested in the Supreme Court and welcomed that process which has brought clarity to an issue of concern for years.

Another point lost in the spin is that it has been made out that it was the Government which created the problem. We must be honest on this issue and with the people about whom the Opposition is, allegedly, so concerned. I resent the accusation that we have been stealing from the elderly. The reality is that previous Ministers, in all Administrations, did not recognise the gap.

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