Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Will the Minster indicate if either her Department or the HSE are currently monitoring the effect of growing unemployment on health funding? I have no doubt she would be in a position to confirm there is an increase in the number of people applying for a medical card. Will she also confirm there is a decrease in the number of people taking out private health insurance? Is she aware if a pattern is already presenting where people are allowing private health insurance they have held for a period of time, perhaps years in some cases, to lapse? Is this information available to the Minister? Does she accept, as this Deputy does, that growing unemployment and the increased cost of private health insurance will have a significant impact as both escalate in their respective ways?

In light of this, does the Minister accept that the appropriate response with regard to a growing dependency on the public health system is for all public moneys to be invested in the public health delivery system itself and not, as is the case currently, in having public moneys diverted to the private, for-profit health providers? Does she accept that her signing off on the HSE service plan for 2009 represents a failure to grasp this very simple message and that, instead of squandering public moneys, we should be guaranteeing the continuation of the best quality public service system that this State and our people can afford?

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