Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I wish to begin where Deputy Reilly finished. It is vital that we get the regulation of health insurance right, including the underpinning of community rating. It will be one of the main building blocks of a fair and equitable health system for the future. All the evidence, including opinion polls and what we are hearing on the doorsteps, suggests that the current Government will be out of office pretty soon. The most likely replacement will be a Labour-Fine Gael Government and that opportunity will come sooner rather than later. If that is the case, and I think it will be, we will be introducing a fair and equitable one-tier health system based on universal health insurance. That has been the Labour Party's policy since 2002 and it is the policy of the Fine Gael Party as enunciated in its recent document. We will have a one-tier, universal health insurance system under the next Government. Even the Minister has decided to establish a group to examine the matter, even though she is not planning to have it report for quite some time. By then, however, the new Government will presumably be in office.

See this speech in context