Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Coveney.

This whole issue about health insurance has been going on since April 2005. Extensive debates have taken place at meetings of the Joint Committee of Health and Children on every aspect of health insurance, with the Health Insurance Authority, VIVAS, VHI, BUPA, the Minister for Health and Children and the Department of Health and Children since April 2005. I want to make clear Fine Gael's position. We fully support competition and community rating. With community rating we fully support risk equalisation, which we want to keep in this marketplace. However, we want to know from the Minister what is going on, why this legislation is so necessary and what exactly she is doing.

This legislation basically abolishes the three year derogation rule for any new entrants to this marketplace. It seems the Minister is only abolishing this derogation because Seán Quinn was going to get away with it. I am sure he is no fan of mine so there is no vested interest in my saying that what the Minister is doing will damage competition in the private health insurance market because she has left this to the last minute as usual. This issue has been bubbling under the surface for at least 12 months and she has left it to the last minute to deal with it, which is a major concern.

What will happen in the sector for private health insurance customers? VHI customers may not pay the price for this mess created by the Government immediately. It may take six or nine months for those customers to see their premiums increase because of this mess, as it might take BUPA that long to exit the market. However, tomorrow morning we may well learn that BUPA customers have again to deal with another unholy mess created by the Government last December. The Minister has rushed through legislation on something she has not fully thought through and she does not know where she is going with it. That is of major concern to Members on this side of the House.

As this side of the House has no access to information the Minister has about how private insurance companies operate in the market, there is speculation that a report which was supposed to have been prepared by the Health Insurance Authority, an agency of the Minister's Department which gives her advice on this issue, states that new insurance companies should be given a financial advantage for seven years instead of the present three years. That report was leaked; it was put on the Minister's desk this month. This legislation removes that derogation. Members on this side of the House have no access to the information the Minister has on this issue. There seems to be contradictions in regard to it, even when account is taken of the Competition Authority's report. The Barrington group will report in March. For an issue that affects 2 million of our citizens, this seems to be an unbelievable mess.

To say that rushed legislation is bad legislation is one thing, but I find it extremely difficult to support this legislation because I am not sure where the Minister is going with it. She has made clear that perhaps this is to get at Seán Quinn, but I am concerned about whether it will affect competition and community rating. Should the Minister in the past 18 months not have been examining ways of tweaking risk equalisation to make the market work? She is probably on the verge of setting the private health insurance market back to where it was in 1995 when the VHI was the only company in this marketplace. When it had a monopoly it provided less of a service at more of a cost. Competition improved that position.

Fine Gael supports competition, community rating and risk equalisation, and wants to see what will happen in the private health insurance market for BUPA and VHI customers. This is such a serious issue that I am sure Members on this side of the House, particularly those in Fine Gael, must oppose this legislation on the basis that the Minister does not seem to know where she is going with it.

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