Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am a firm believer in a universal health care service. I do not believe in tax relief for private health insurance or that it is compatible with the delivery of a universal health service. However, we do not have that universal health service at present.

The Minister spoke about the substantial amount of tax foregone. Due to the changes that were announced in the budget the Minister said €94 million will be recouped to, or saved by, the Exchequer. That would be welcome if, in fact, it was ploughed back into the health service to ensure that the lack of confidence felt by all the people who take out health insurance in this State was being addressed. However, consider the other measures announced today by the Minister, including the fact that €325 million is being taken out of the budget of the Department of Health and the HSE and that there is an increase to €666 million, a figure referred to earlier by the Minister. He is not here to address that figure. Waiting lists are getting longer and we have the debacle with the junior doctors, which the Minister promised to address but which has been an absolute failure. There is a delay with the children's hospital. It was promised to be delivered by 2016 but I doubt that one will see a child in a new children's hospital in this city before 2018, if not later. There is also the fact that the Minister cannot even pay to address the waiting lists for cochlear implants, which we will discuss on Thursday in a Private Members' motion.

There is a raft of reasons that the public does not have confidence in the public health service. I have confidence in it, but many do not. They are scared to give up the payments they have been making into a private health insurance company. Some of them have been paying for many years. They will forego their dinner rather than give up the hope or cover they think they have as a result of purchasing health insurance.

I spent most of today in Crumlin children's hospital and have nothing but praise for those working there. I have been to a number of other hospitals in the last two years. That comes with having young children. Every one of them had a waiting list and every one of them was bursting at the seams each time I visited. Every doctor and nurse I have met is owed nothing but praise for working in the difficult conditions in which they work. However, the savings the Minister spoke about here are not being ploughed into the services on which they should be spent. This is not being ring-fenced.

This is not a move towards a universal health service. It is not even a move towards universal health insurance, which is the direction the Government promised it would take. This is, in fact, another grab by the Department of Finance which it will spend elsewhere or put it into the black hole it has created. I urge the Minister to ring-fence this money to ensure that this and any other progressive move to remove tax reliefs from private health insurance in the long run is ploughed into a universal health service. That is the way the State should be going. It is the way a progressive state would deal with it.

Those who wish to pay for private health insurance will do so, understanding that they will not get the benefit from a public service. I will not support the measure because the Minister is not ring-fencing the savings to improve the public service that is already creaking at the seams.

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