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

We appreciate the Tánaiste sharing in the wonder but we would much prefer if he shared the responsibility for the escalating costs of private health insurance. Every Government policy is inflating the cost of private health insurance for hard-pressed families. I agree that because of the recession there is high unemployment and the country is in difficulty. The bottom line is that the Minister for Finance, with one fell swoop, drove thousands of people out of the private health insurance market. The spurious claim that this would only affect gold-plated health insurance policies is not credible. Every family in the country will be affected by the cap on tax relief. The Tánaiste's reply to my question gives no comfort to any family deciding whether private health insurance can be retained.

Does the Tánaiste agree that the Government is undermining the health insurance market? The debt spiral continues and hard-pressed families are finding it increasingly difficult to retain private health insurance. The Government's policy is undermining intergenerational solidarity, community rating and the subsidising of the old by the young. I ask the Tánaiste to reverse the tax relief cap and consider introducing a policy to attract young people into the private health insurance market before it crumbles.

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