James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Several speakers, including Deputy Lowry, have used the industry's figures to say that premia will go up by 30%. I have made it clear that I have got actuarial figures that show quite a different scenario.

Deputy Lowry does not seem to understand risk equalisation because he said that it would increase the cost for all adults. It does not. It is a transfer between adults who are young and well, and older adults who are sicker and less well. That is what we call community rating, which is something that both sides of this House believe in.

Deputy Kelleher glibly mentioned the pressure on State funding and pointedly neglected to say how we find ourselves in this position. He contended that I said 380,000 people on the outpatient waiting list were not a problem, but I never said such a thing. I said it was daunting but that we see 200,000 people in our outpatients departments every month and that we could and would deal with it.

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