Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the sentiment and figures put on the record by Deputy Naughten. This measure is extremely ill-thought-out. I am not sure any serious thought was given to it. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, stated in his speech gold-plated health insurance packages would be the only health insurance packages to be affected by this measure. This is incredibly misleading. The vast majority of health insurance packages, as Deputy Naughten pointed out, will be affected by the elimination of this relief. The average cost of a premium for any individual in the State is more than €1,000. With age comes ill health and increased premiums and costs. Older people will be hit disproportionately by this measure and I do not believe this has been well thought out, if thought out at all.

It will automatically add to insurance premiums from tomorrow morning but we do not know precisely by how much. It will probably average in the region of approximately 15%. This is on top of the very well-flagged increases announced by the VHI which are set to begin in 2014. These will average anywhere from 15% to 25%. The substantial increases already felt by ordinary citizens of the State over the past number of years will be dramatically increased from tomorrow and from 1 January 2014.

To put this in the context of the wider budgetary measures, older sick people will be hardest-hit and this is on top of the proposal flagged in the budget to withdraw approximately 35,000 medical cards from those aged over 70, and a swathe of other measures which will disproportionately hit older people in our society, such as the double pension levy being introduced from 2014. The pension levy due to cease in 2014 will now become double pension levy. DIRT tax is being dramatically increased and this will hit older people's savings, many of whom worked hard all their lives to build a nest egg.

All of this combined amounts to a draconian approach to older people in this budget. We cannot ignore this. The measure, introduced hastily by resolution this evening, will come into effect from tomorrow morning without any real costings or real figures being given to the House, which is not acceptable. I have major concerns. I hope the Minister can provide assurances to the House, although I doubt it.

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