Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Regarding the health insurance levy, it is very hard for people to understand how the Supreme Court made a landmark decision on risk equalisation in 2008 and yet the Government has stated that legislation to deal with the issue will not be ready until 2013. This levy is an imposition on people who, in many cases, are finding it difficult to manage already. It also raises fundamental issues of health policy. We have a health service with major difficulties; we have extraordinary inefficiencies and at the same time extraordinary stresses and strains on our hospital service. We have an undermanned general practice primary care service and are not investing enough in general practitioners' training. People are being charged for a visit to a GP in a way that would be unacceptable in any other European country. Why is the Government perpetuating inequalities at a time when there should have been a fundamental reappraisal of health policy and how the health service operates?

This is my last time speaking in this House. I hope one of my legacies will be in regard to producing in 2001 the Labour Party policy document "Our Good Health", which was the first policy document of any party that developed a worked-out health insurance model to provide equal access for all while also providing for an efficient health service. I regret very much that the Labour Party was not in a position to promote that in Government but it has been gratifying that even though at the time it was considered too radical - Fianna Fáil of course bashed it and Fine Gael kept silent - as time has gone on Fine Gael has accepted the merit of our position and has made its own proposals. Even on the Fianna Fáil side there has been grudging acceptance that it is the way forward. I would hope that whatever vicissitudes and difficulties the next Government will need to endure - it will undoubtedly endure many - providing and developing a universal health service with equal access for all would be its legacy.

We should consider how major progressive reforming policies were initiated in the past. I can think of two developed by Fianna Fáil Ministers, one was the access to second level education and the other was reform of general practice to provide medical cards on the basis of equal access so that it is against the law for a general practitioner to discriminate in any way between his or her private and public patients. Why were these considerations not brought into play when introducing fiscal policy that would underpin a decent health service and give us what the people are entitled to have as members of the European Union? Most of the population automatically presume that they can rely on such a health service where people are treated equally.

We will not oppose the provision on stamp duty. It was my honour to serve in the rainbow Government as Minister of State with responsibility for housing and urban renewal. Again, it would have been helpful had both this Government and the previous one given an honest statement or assessment of how things went so wrong. When we left Government I was conscious, because of information that came to me, of an increase in house prices in the private market - it was quite evident. I was satisfied, and the evidence is there on an absolutely factual basis, that we had managed to keep within the income and mortgage ratio required for a manageable market. We could stand over that record. Unfortunately, when the new Government came in the system and the market spiralled out of control. Some people made very large amounts of money while others have been very badly shackled with negative equity and very large mortgages at exactly the wrong time of their lives. Many are young people hoping to set out and have families at an expensive time of their lives or perhaps they already have young families and now have this crippling burden.

The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, is an intelligent and, I believe, an honest man. Why has a good, hard, concise assessment not been carried out? This Government is coming to the end of its days but we have a Civil Service which has provided information, analysis and very good advice through the years. We now have a situation from which none of us can take any heart because the hole dug for us by Fianna Fáil in particular is so deep it is very hard to see a way out of it. I believe the new government will provide the road to recovery and a fresh start which, even in itself, will be helpful. The one thing we must not do is repeat the mistakes of the past.

We already discussed tax breaks. When I was Minister of State one of the first things I did was to commission a review on urban renewal designation, what worked, what did not, what worked aesthetically, environmentally, socially and, most important, what worked economically and financially. That was a useful piece of work that at least tried to provide an honest appraisal of what had happened. We made mistakes. I would be the first to say the seaside renewal scheme was not a success and anybody who looks at the effects it had cannot take much heart from it. Ultimately, none of us is infallible. It is the lack of honesty and responsibility on the part of this Government which I find unnerving. I had to smile when I heard the Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, talk about the Opposition being in denial. Wow.

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