Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Lastly, I will speak about the issue of a two-tier system. We have negotiated a new contract with consultants, which took four years. I was criticised about the length of time it took, but the reason was that we needed to obtain more access for public patients to our consultant manpower. That is at the heart of the new contract. There is a one-for-all list for diagnostics and for outpatients based on medical need. We could not consider the new contract as a blank slate; we had to negotiate within the parameters of the existing contract. The new contract was welcomed by both parties in Opposition and is now taking root. That, I inform Deputy Rabbitte, is the only way we will end what he broadly calls the two-tier system. Everybody has universal access to hospitals in this country; the issue is whether they can obtain access based on medical need, unlike some on private health insurance and others. It is only by changing the contract that we can achieve this.

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