Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

It would be negligent of the House to pass the motions without debate given the extraordinary decision of the Minister for Health and Children not to introduce risk equalisation. Her decision is now being viewed as a capitulation to one insurer in the market. She has disregarded the advice of the Health Insurance Authority which was established by the House and is the expert body in this area. While the authority twice advised against risk equalisation, it has recommended on this occasion that it should be introduced to protect competition in the market. The Tánaiste had indicated she would proceed on that basis, but has now decided otherwise. There is no clear explanation as to why she is abandoning for the moment a safeguard to the common good and individual subscribers, many of whom are now worried about the inevitable costs which will result from her failure to make a decision.

I call for the allocation of an hour for a debate. We have spare time to permit proper debate and scrutiny of risk equalisation because the Driver Testing and Standards Authority Bill was concluded yesterday, even though time was provided for it today. The Tánaiste must take the good advice she was given by the body established by this House to consider the matter. She has not explained adequately why she has done this and she has linked the status of the VHI to the lack of decision for which she is responsible. There is no connection. It does not make sense. As the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has pointed out, the net effect of what she has done is to continue——

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