Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A previous speaker indicated that the legislation is rushed and stakeholders were not given an opportunity to discuss it. This is a pity because no mention has been made of the ongoing debate outside the House on the issues of eligibility and universality.

Instead, we have heard tit-for-tat commentary, point scoring and remarks about what the Minister, Deputy Reilly, stated or did not state. Were we to hold this debate up to ourselves like a mirror, we would see that we did not have much to say about future eligibility and entitlements.

I expected the figures to be discussed further. Some 42% of patients over the age of 70 years have private health insurance, 47% of patients under the age of 70 years have private health insurance, 90% of patients over the age of 70 years have medical cards and 36% of patients under the age of 70 years have medical cards. Approximately 70% of people aged less than 70 years must pay for their own health care costs. Surely the House should debate this issue. People with young families are not being looked after as they should be, yet this debate has been focused on people aged over 70 years.

For this reason, primary care reform is important. Not only must we continue to look after the health care needs of elderly patients, but we must make resources available to those under the age of 70 years to prevent the types of health problems that have exploded in recent years. When I qualified as a doctor 20 years ago, the issues of obesity, diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol and a lack of exercise were discussed, but they were not central concerns. Now, some schoolchildren are significantly obese. The cholesterol plaques that lead to heart disease begin to form in one's teenage years. We will see an explosion in the incidence of heart disease among younger people. Diabetes is being diagnosed in people in their 30s and 40s. Some 20 years ago, cases were only seen in people in their 50s and 60s.

More people need medical cards and should be able to access general practitioner, GP, services, yet we have not held a discussion on eligibility for health care services or on universality. We should not be discussing elderly people alone. We must debate the available resources. There is no point in discussing what we should be doing in terms of health or education without referencing the available resources or how resources can be shifted. To do so would be to continue with our silly arguments and tit-for-tat rubbish. It is easy to see why no one has any interest in paying the House's proceedings attention, given the ráiméis that I have had to put up with in this debate.

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