Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----medical attention for people who need it and who do not have the financial facility to buy private health insurance. The Government seeks to move to a single-tier insurance where everyone can have the same level of treatment in respect of the treatment they need. That is the concept of universal health insurance and obviously part of that concerns the structure of primary care centres and the continued provision of sufficient allocations for front-line services to be delivered to people.

I will take the points raised by the Deputy and will see that the Minister for Health responds to the Deputy. However, it is not a case of going around the country apologising outside every hospital one sees. It is a case of serious changes being made, with hospital groups in different localities around the country with a better range of expertise and consultancy available to them and therefore providing a better service to everyone in each of those localities. That is the intention and, as the Deputy is well aware, it is not always easy to do it overnight.

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