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

At the heart of the Government's policy in the programme for Government are two key issues with regard to health, the introduction of free GP care for all by end of the lifetime of the Government and the establishment of universal health insurance after the next election. By any stretch of the imagination and to say the very least and be polite, progress to date has been minimal. There is now a situation where the funding model that is being proposed by the Minister for Health is a form of universal health insurance and, at the same time, two key Ministers in government, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, are cynically undermining that proposal. Before the previous general election, the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, said no one would pay any more than they are paying already for health insurance. Clearly, that has not happened, with massive increases in private health insurance costs, year in, year out, in the interim, forcing families to abandon it at a rate of up to 6,500 people a month.

We await the publication of the White Paper on universal health insurance. Last Monday the Minister for Finance was quite robust in undermining the principle of universal health insurance, saying it would expose the State and families to huge costs. This is coupled with the leaks last week from the office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, that families will have to pay up to €1,600 for the basic health cover that is being proposed by the Minister, Deputy Reilly.

First, does the Tánaiste agree that the panacea announced by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, three years ago, where nobody would pay any more than they are already paying, is now a fallacy in the sense that people are already paying substantial sums over and above that? Second, when will the White Paper be published in order that we can have an informed debate on this issue? We are depending on scraps and leaks from Government and from individual Ministers trying to undermine what is a central core principle of this Government in regard to the delivery of universal health insurance. Does the Tánaiste agree the White Paper should be published immediately and that we should have an informed debate on it? Clearly, the document we published last year would indicate it will not be utopia if we introduce universal health insurance, as proposed by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, because, simply put, it will cost an awful lot more than people are paying in private health insurance at present. Is the Labour Party happy with giving over health insurance to private companies-----

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