John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I thank the Minister for her reply. She has correctly identified the company in question as Triad, one of the bidders for six co-located hospitals and which is also managing the Beacon Hospital. This company is a subsidiary of an American corporation that pleaded guilty to criminal fraud. This hospital chain, Columbia/HCA, paid a total of €1.7 billion to settle US Government fraud charges. Triad is currently under contract to its parent company for services that include patient accounting, which was the nub of the fraud case taken by the US Government against it. Does this information set off alarm bells for the Minister? In light of this information, does the Minister believe that providing massive inducements in the form of giving public land to such American companies is the right way forward? Instead of cutting costs, could they increase inordinately if the same pattern occurs here? Hence, while I am aware the Minister believes us to be closer to Boston than Berlin, do we really wish to Americanise our health system so health becomes a commodity to be traded in the market place? The Minister must realise that health is much more than that. It concerns people's well-being and using the market model may be ill-advised.

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