Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, it is fine and the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, is always welcome to contribute to a debate. While he contributes to many debates, on the health area being debated this evening, it really is about the consistency of Government policy. This amendment drives a coach and four through that because even in the programme for Government, the signatories did not state it was their intended policy to remove or to reduce the eligibility criteria for the over-70s. For this reason, I believe this amendment is simply unacceptable given what is stated in Government policy and what actually is happening on the floor of Dáil Éireann.

This is coupled with another issue that happened only one month ago, when the Minister for Finance told the House he was capping tax relief on private health insurance to €1,000 per adult and €500 per child. He stated that such insurance policies were gold-plated but by any credible stretch of the imagination, any preliminary perusal of the figures the Minister set out, involving €127 million in a full year, would belie that assertion. It simply will have an impact on the average two-plus-two private health insurance policy. It will cause an increase; the VHI has stated that most of their policies will increase in price because of it, as have most of the other health insurers.

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