Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and I congratulate Deputy Brian Hayes for his initiative in bringing the motion forward. People are very divided and concerned about this issue. There is grave concern that public property will be moved into private ownership at knock-down prices at the expense of the taxpayer. There has been little consultation about this. The Minister has not held any consultation. It seems more an ideological approach to moving the entire health system into the private sector rather than a consultation on what is best for the delivery of patient care.

There now will be two types of patient on site. Those of us who are in politics a long time, and dealing with the public, see the divide in the service provided to people in hospitals. Those who can afford private insurance and those who can afford to pay get a different level of service from those who cannot. In dealing with the health service, that is the most glaring fact all of us face. This relates especially to waiting lists, but also to other areas. When somebody comes to you stating he or she has VHI or Quinn-Healthcare, one knows that he or she has a better opportunity of obtaining the service. I have seen cancer patients having to wait three or four months for a proper consultation, whereas somebody who can afford private insurance will get attention within weeks. This is unfair and discriminatory. The proposal to co-locate in public hospitals will exacerbate that position.

No doubt key personnel will move from the public service into the private service because the incentive will exist. We all are human. Consultants are human. They will see a better return in being in the private sector and will move that way, and the investors will attract the key personnel, who are most qualified and who attract the most patients, into the private sector and leave those who are less qualified or in whom the people in the public sector have less confidence. It will exacerbate the division between private and public delivery of patient care. There is no evidence that the new system will be more efficient.

Deputy McDaid spoke about the National Treatment Purchase Fund and in that regard, I want to raise an issue with the Minister. I understand that those who wish to remove marks from their bodies, including tattoos, can be facilitated under the National Treatment Purchase Fund because it is a surgical intervention.

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