Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Deputy Kenny, for whom I have a good deal of respect, and Deputy Reilly, the Fine Gael spokesman, told us they visited the Netherlands and they intend to implement in Ireland the universal health care system that operates there, where all the hospitals were privatised and the insurers purchase services from the hospitals. Even in the Netherlands, however, people at the very bottom make a co-payment. I had this discussion only this week at a European Council Meeting with my Dutch colleagues because I wanted to ensure I fully understood what their proposals were. Those at the very bottom pay an annual sum of something in the region of €600 per family.

That is the Fine Gael plan for Ireland and it has not yet been costed. We were told there would be free primary care, which I estimated would add another €1.3 billion to the annual cost. There is an enormous hole in the Fine Gael plan. For the Fine Gael Deputies to say they would oppose a prescription charge of 50 cent per item, capped at €10, when they want to introduce the Netherlands plan into Ireland that has co-payments for every single person-----

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